Here’s a list of current media and journalism fellowship programs, including the deadlines for applying. If we’re missing any major programs, or you would like your program to be in the featured fellowship slot, please contact Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org to let us know, and we’ll add them to the list. All featured fellowships are paid promotional slots.
JANUARY 2016 DEADLINES
ProPublica Reporting Fellowship
We are looking for a reporting fellow to work in our newsroom. The fellowship is a minimum of 16 weeks and can last for up to a year. We’re ready for you to start as soon as you’re available. It’s full-time, based in New York, and compensation is $700 per week. Fellows primarily report their own stories —like this one — but also collaborate with ProPublica’s reporters on big projects. We’re looking for somebody who has done reporting, and loves doing it.
Fall Deadline: No deadline set, apply ASAP
Bridges Fellowship
Bay Area Video Coalition’s Bridges Fellowship asks, “What can young adults learn from media arts professionals that can help them make a positive impact on their lives, their careers, and their communities?” Participants, ages 18-26, investigate how artists and start-up innovators alike make their living as successful tech and media entrepreneurs, while exploring connections between media-making and social justice. Applicants must be low-income, and between the ages of 18-26, and reside in the Bay Area. Priority will be given to individuals with barriers to employment. Applicants must be able to commit to all program components and dates. Applicants must possess a drive to excel in their respective field of media arts and tech, and be committed to social justice.
Deadline Information: Applications for 2016 TBA.
Asia Journalism Fellowship
The Asia Journalism Fellowship is an initiative of Temasek Foundation and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. It brings journalists from across Asia to NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for three months of learning and exchange. Away from the deadline pressures of their jobs, Fellows pursue their intellectual interests in one of Asia’s leading universities. The semi-structured programme is designed to sharpen professional skills and deepen understanding of trends in media and communication. It also provides access to key newsmakers in Singapore’s public sector, business community and civil society, offering insights into the challenges faced by one of Asia’s most cosmopolitan hub cities.
Deadline Information: Applications for 2016 opening in January.
Multimedia Skills Building for Georgian Journalists
Eighteen journalists will be selected for this two-pronged program, which will include a 16-day study tour to four U.S. cities where participants will attend training sessions, meetings and site visits that will expose them to cutting-edge digital tools, skills and methods. The program will begin with an orientation in Washington, D.C. and continue to Silicon Valley; Austin, Texas and New York City. English language skills are desirable but are not required. Interpretation and translation will be provided for non-English speakers. Following the study tour, participants will return to Georgia, where they will receive two months of online mentoring from seasoned digital journalists who will help participants apply their newly acquired skills in their newsrooms at home. Mentors will guide the participants as they work on content production, audience engagement and innovative business models.
Deadline: Jan. 8, 2016
Witness Media Lab Curation Fellowship
The WITNESS Media Lab Curation Fellowship is designed to give a promising journalist, activist, or documentarian the opportunity to conduct innovative human rights reporting and advocacy by bridging citizen footage with human rights methodology. The fellow will conduct research and compile a report on a human rights story primarily using eyewitness video (often called “citizen journalism” or “user-generated content”). The report will be shared on lab.witness.org and potentially by media or advocacy partners. The fellow will also document the process and share challenges, strategies, and learnings on the WITNESS Media Lab blog. Finally, the fellow will work to engage with target audiences around the report, its findings, and its methodology.
Deadline: Jan. 8, 2016
A Digital Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America
Path to Entrepreneurship and Innovation for Latin America program has been reopened for applicants from Honduras and Nicaragua only. This 18-month, multi-phase program is for 28 Latin American professional fellows and 10 of their U.S. counterparts. ICFJ and its selected partner organizations in each country will recruit professional and citizen journalists, media business managers, digital entrepreneurs and technologists to create media business models that harness the power of digital tools to generate sustainable new revenue. Applicants must be fluent in English. The selected Latin American fellows will complete a month-long program in the United States which begins with an orientation at ICFJ’s headquarters. Each fellow will then participate in a three-week internship at carefully selected U.S. institutions.
Deadline: Jan. 10, 2016
Hearst Journalism Fellowship
If you have the skills, passion and determination to be a journalist of the future — a trained professional who knows a good story and who has the talent and confidence to tell it in a way that best imparts its relevance and importance to news consumers — the Hearst Fellowship might be perfect for you. This is the premier two-year newspaper fellowship in the country. Our goal is to recruit, train and retain the best of the next generation of journalists — top-notch multi-media professionals with a broad range of skills. The program consists of two 12-month rotations at our top metro papers and websites. Fellows are full-fledged journalists expected to make significant, valuable contributions in a variety of roles and platforms.
Deadline: Jan. 11, 2016
Martha’s Vineyard Fellowship for Innovation in Journalism
The Gazette has created the fellowship to promote experimentation and to cultivate the use of multimedia journalism techniques in a traditional newsroom setting. The successful fellow will have professional journalism experience and demonstrated audio, video and/or digital production skills. We are seeking a mature, multimedia journalist with the ability and desire to work as part of a newsroom team, to share knowledge and to produce compelling news packages.
Deadline: Jan. 15, 2016
Reporting Rural Poverty and Agriculture Development
In order to ensure the daily issues faced by rural poor people and their communities are acknowledged, it is important that their stories are heard and their voices are amplified. With funding from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the specialised UN agency, the Thomson Reuters Foundation will bring together journalists from around the world in Rome to attend the IFAD Governing Council. The aim is to build specific expertise and increase familiarity and knowledge of issues faced by rural communities, help journalists to present new viewpoints, promote discussion and dialogue on how small-scale agriculture can respond to the growing demand for food, and the essential need to support rural transformation and smallholder agriculture.
Deadline: Jan. 18, 2016
Media Fellowship on South Asian Initiative on Migrant Labor
The fellowships are being offered by Panos South Asia as a part of a Swiss Development and Cooperation (SDC) project for encouraging dialogue and discussion on migrant labour issues among concerned stakeholders. Applications are invited from print, television, radio and web journalists writing/reporting on migrant labour issues from Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The fellowship will support writing/reporting stories on migrant labor from the region and labor-receiving countries. The fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in an orientation workshop in the last week of February 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal and first-hand experience trip to select destination countries that will link them with individuals and institutions from these neighboring countries and understand migrant-related issues from a South Asian perspective. The fellowship also offers an opportunity of being mentored by experienced editors.
Deadline: Jan. 24, 2016
Bringing Home the World: International Reporting Fellowship for Minority Journalists
The Bringing Home the World Fellowship helps U.S.-based minority journalists cover compelling yet under-reported international stories, increasing the diversity of voices in global news. The program helps level the playing field and redress the inequality minority journalists often face by giving them the opportunity to report from overseas and advance their careers. Applications are now open.
Deadline: Jan. 25, 2016
Jefferson Fellowships
The Jefferson Fellowships offer print and broadcast journalists from the United States, Asia and the Pacific Islands the unique opportunity to gain on-the-ground perspectives and build international networks to enhance their reporting through an intensive one-week education and dialogue seminar at the East-West Center in Honolulu followed by two weeks of study tour travel in the Asia Pacific-U.S. region.
Deadline: Jan. 29, 2016
Reuters Journalism Fellowship Program
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University hosts fellows for three, six or nine months, and is currently accepting fellows for its Google Digital News Journalist Fellowship, Lion Rock Spirit Fellowship, Mona Megalli Fellowship and Thomson Reuters Foundation Fellowship. More information about the fellowships are available here.
Deadline: Jan. 31, 2016
FEBRUARY 2016 DEADLINES
Community Stories Grant
The Community Stories program funds projects that focus on the collection and sharing of real stories of California’s communities. Projects must involve at least one humanities expert as an advisor, use the methods of analysis that inform the humanities as well as community-based research, and produce work that is publicly accessible. Application eligibility is limited to California-based nonprofit organizations or local/state public agencies or institutions. Grant awards range up to $10,000 and a cash or in-kind match is required. There are two yearly rounds of open applications for Community Stories.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Arthur F. Burns Fellowship
Each year, outstanding media professionals from the United States, Canada and Germany are awarded an opportunity to report from and travel in each other’s countries as part of The Arthur F. Burns Fellowship Program. The program offers young journalists, age 40 and under, the opportunity to share professional expertise with their colleagues across the Atlantic while working as “foreign correspondents” for their hometown news organizations. U.S. and Canadian applications are due March 1, 2016, German applications due on February 1, 2016.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016/Mar. 1, 2016
O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism
Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI
Backed by the resources of Marquette University and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, O’Brien Fellows will spend nine months researching, reporting and writing the stories they care most deeply about — stories with the potential to change policies and improve lives. This fully funded fellowship allows newsroom professionals to do the best work of their careers on issues of vital importance while they also mentor the next generation of journalists.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Fund for Investigative Journalism
The Fund for Investigative Journalism’s Board of Directors meets three to four times each year to consider grant applications for investigative projects and books. The deadlines for 2016 are Monday February 1, Monday May 16, and Monday September 26 – all at 5pm ET. The board of directors looks for stories that brean new ground and expose wrongdoing — such as corruption, malfeasance, or misuse of power — in the public and private sectors.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Joan Shorenstein Fellowship
Cambridge, MA
The fellowship brings journalists, policymakers and scholars together to the Harvard Kennedy School to advance research in media, politics and public policy.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship
University of Michigan
The Knight-Wallace Fellowship offers an academic year of study, reflection and growth for six international and 12 American journalists at the University of Michigan. Fellows pursue a personalized plan of study, attend twice-weekly seminars focusing on journalism and academia and receive a stipend of $70,000.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Khadija Ismayilova Investigative Journalism Fellowship
Various
The Fellowship is a living tribute to Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning Azeri journalist, who was imprisoned by authorities on December 5, 2014 and sentenced to 7.5 years in jail in an attempt to silence her. This Fellowship seeks to ensure that her voice is heard, and that her work to use journalism in support of democracy continues. It is sponsored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). Candidates must be fluent in English and from RFE/RL’s broadcast region: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Deadline: Feb. 1, 2016
Journalist Law School
The challenge of reporting on the legal system without a law degree is daunting. To help support journalists who cover the courts on national, regional or local levels, the Civil Justice Program at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, has developed the journalist law program consisting of a four-day intensive seminar on the legal system. Lectures, lodging and most meals are covered by the program. View the program overview or the 2016 JLS brochure for further details. The 11th-Annual Journalist Law School fellowship will be held June 8-11, 2016.
Deadline: Feb. 4, 2016
2016 Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists
The University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting, a global leader in providing science training for journalists, is accepting applications for its competitive 18th Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists: Global Change in Coastal Ecosystems, June 5-12, 2016. The workshop will be held at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, one of the nation’s premier oceanographic research institutions and home to Metcalf Institute. Ten early- to mid-career journalists will be selected for the fellowship, which includes tuition, travel support, room and board, and career-changing professional training.
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2016
Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship
The Fellowship funds a one-year writing project focusing on American culture and free society. Separate fellowships also focus on environment, free enterprise and law enforcement. Full-time fellows will receive $50,000, and part-time fellows will receive $25,000. A journalistic project funded under this program should be original and publishable. It will be delivered in four quarterly installments with the potential to be published sequentially in a periodical publication or all together as a book. In addition to the funds set aside to reimburse the Fellow’s expenses — $10,000 for a full-time fellowship and $5,000 for a part-time fellowship — the fellowship grant will be paid in four increments to correspond with completion of the quarterly writing installments.
Deadline: Feb. 5, 2016
RJI Residential Fellow
Missouri School of Journalism
Designed for persons inside and outside media industries who want to collaborate with RJI in the pursuit of solutions to a particular journalism problem. Residential fellows spend eight months on campus at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, taking advantage of the intellectual and technological resources of RJI and the school and interacting with Missouri faculty and students. Some examples include: access to programmers and app developers, financial support to conduct market research and hiring students to produce multi-media content. Solutions, in the form of strategies, products or services, developed from these ideas would be shared with many news and news-related organizations. You must reside in Columbia for the duration of this fellowship.
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2016
RJI Non-Residential Fellow
Various
Designed for entrepreneurial individuals with a strong interest in journalism and issues related to digital communications. Your fellowship can be about something you are interested in pursuing on your own or something that could benefit a current employer. Successful ideas, products or strategies should serve as a model for the news industry or help the industry get smarter, faster, nimbler. You do not need to live in Columbia, Missouri, but will need to make occasional visits to consult with RJI leadership and staff.
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2016
RJI Institutional Fellows
Various
Designed to unlock some of the thoughtful, meaningful ideas inside newsrooms, ad departments, boardrooms, break rooms, etc., that for various reasons can’t get any traction. RJI will collaborate with a leader at a company or institution who will identify an employee who can develop an idea or lead a team that could do it. The employee will be named an RJI Fellow but will continue working at his or her job. The stipend for this fellowship will be paid to the company or institution to be used for salary relief for the fellow, or for another purpose that the company or institution determines will best ensure the success of the fellowship project.
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2016
World Press Institute Fellowship
Various
The WPI fellowship is offered to 10 journalists from countries around the world. It provides immersion into the governance, politics, business, media, journalistic ethics and culture of the United States for experienced international journalists, through a demanding schedule of study, travel and interviews throughout the country. The program begins in mid-August and ends in mid-October. The fellows will spend three weeks in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, and then travel to several U.S. cities, including New York and Washington, D.C., for briefings, interviews and visits. They will return to Minnesota for the final week of the program.
Deadline: Feb. 15, 2016
Fellowship in Global Journalism
Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto
This fellowship recruits 20 fellows from around the world with subject-matter expertise to become leading global correspondents. Participants receive mentoring from professional journalists while freelancing for major media outlets and attending journalism courses and lectures. They will continue to receive free coaching for two years after graduating in April 2017.
Deadline: Feb. 19, 2016
Princeton University Summer Journalism Program 2016
Princeton University
PUSJP is one of the country’s most innovative and successful programs working to provide opportunities to outstanding high school students from low-income backgrounds. We welcome about 25 high school students from low-income backgrounds every summer to Princeton’s campus for an all-expenses-paid, intensive 10-day seminar on journalism. After the program ends, counselors stay in touch with students to help guide them through the college admissions process. The program’s goal is to diversify college and professional newsrooms by encouraging outstanding students from low-income backgrounds to pursue careers in journalism. All expenses, including students’ travel costs to and from Princeton, are paid for by the program. Students who attend come from across the country. The program will enter its 15th summer in 2016. It will take place from August 5 to August 15.
Deadline: Feb. 26, 2016
Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship
Open Road Films and Participant Media, with support from First Look Media, are sponsoring a fellowship of up to $100,000 to be awarded by The Boston Globe for one or more individuals or teams of journalists to work on in-depth research and reporting projects. The chosen journalist(s) will collaborate with established investigative reporters and editors from The Boston Globe’sPulitzer Prize-winning Spotlight Team.
Deadline: Feb. 29, 2016
Knight Science Journalism Fellowship
Midcareer journalists covering science, technology, the environment or medicine can apply for a fellowship at MIT. The Knight Science Journalism Fellowships host international and U.S. journalists for a nine months of personalized study, auditing courses at MIT and Harvard, attending lectures and interviewing faculty members. Fellows receive a US $70,000 stipend plus tuition. Additional benefits include health insurance, research trip stipends, conference stipends and access to MIT and Harvard resources.Applicants must have English proficiency and at least three years of experience as reporters, writers, editors, producers, illustrators or photojournalists. They may work for newspapers, magazines, television, radio or the web.
Deadline: Feb. 29, 2016
Senior Journalists Seminar: “Bridging Gaps in US Relations with the Muslim World”
For senior journalists from the United States and countries with substantial Muslim populations; study tour destinations in the United States, Southeast Asia and South Asia are intended to enhance media coverage and elevate the public debate regarding religion and its role in the public sphere, specifically as it concerns US relations with the Muslim world. Program dates: August 24-September 18, 2016; Application Period: February-April 2016.
IN PROGRESS OR FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS
Alexia Foundation Grant Program
Various locations
The Alexia Foundation provides grants of $25,000 to students, professionals and women for a serious documentary photographic projects. Deadlines for this year are closed.
Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships
The Asia Pacific Journalism Fellowships (APJF) program was initiated in 1998 for the purpose of strengthening understanding between Asia and the United States through study, dialogue and field study in the Asia Pacific for American journalists. Each program offers opportunities for six to eight senior American broadcast, print, and online journalists to participate. 2016 Program pending.
Associated Press Global News Internship Program
Various locations
This paid internship program is for students who are aspiring cross-format journalists and will contribute to AP’s text, video, photo and interactive reporting. The application period for the 2015 internship is closed. Questions may be emailed to internship@ap.org.
Bay Area Video Coalition Mediamaker Fellowship
San Francisco, CA
The fellowship selects fellows for a 10-month program that supports project development with professional mentorship in multiplatform and transmedia storytelling through emerging technologies and strategic marketing.
China-United States Journalist Exchange
Various
For Chinese and American journalists. Chinese journalists travel to three cities in the United States; American journalists travel to three cities in China. After their study tours, all journalists meet for dialogue to conclude the program. Program dates: September 2016 (exact dates TBD)
Data & Society Fellow
New York City
The fellowship brings together researchers, entrepreneurs, activists, policy creators, journalists and public intellectuals who are interested in engaging one another on the key issues introduced by the increasing availability of data in society.
Donald W. Reynolds Fellowships
Columbia, MO or remote
The fellowship offers an annual program for individuals to develop innovative ideas within journalism and to help build the public’s knowledge in these areas.
Edward R. Murrow Press Fellowship
New York City
The fellowship offers one fellow a nine-month period of writing, reporting and providing analysis on newsworthy international events at the Council on Foreign Relations headquarters. Interested candidates who meet the program’s eligibility requirements can apply online between January 1 and March 1 on an annual basis.
Fellowship in Professional Journalism for Morning News Journalists
Dallas, TX
The fellow will contribute to the student-generated news website at the University of Texas at Austin Moody College of Communication as well as teach a course in her own expertise.
Fulbright Journalism & Communications Grants
Fulbright offers opportunities in Germany, Ireland, Spain and Taiwan. The timeline for this year is now closed but will start again in the early spring.
Google Journalism Fellowships
Various locations
The fellowship is for undergraduate, graduate and journalism students interested in using technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways at various organizations.
Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR)
The Innovation in Development Reporting Grant Programme (IDR) is a media-funding project operated by the European Journalism Centre (EJC). The grant programme aims to advance creative reporting approaches, thus enabling a better coverage of international development issues. The grant intends to raise awareness about these issues by enabling the production of stories that have a strong impact on media audiences in the following nine European countries: Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Deadline: Mar. 2, 2016
Knight-Mozilla Fellowship
Various locations
Fellows spend 10 months embedded with partner newsrooms, such as the New York Times and ProPublica. Fellows are developers, technologists, civic hackers and data crunchers who work with the community inside and outside of their newsroom to develop open-source projects.
Knight-Bagehot Fellowship
Columbia Journalism School
This year-long fellowship for business and finance journalists allows participants to strengthen their knowledge of business, economics and finance. Fellows receive free tuition to take courses at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, business, law and international affairs, as well as a receive a $55,000 stipend.
Deadline: Mar. 1, 2016
Korea-United States Journalist Exchange
Various
For Korean and American journalists. Korean journalists travel to three cities in the United States; American journalists travel to three cities in South Korea. 2016 program pending.
Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship
San Diego, CA
The Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship at Point Loma Nazarene University is an initiative to develop modern education in the sciences, philosophy, society and the arts.
Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship
Phoenix, AZ
The week-long multimedia fellowship program sponsored by the Meredith Corporation and its Phoenix television station, KPHO CBS 5, offers broadcast journalism students from underrepresented groups a week of hands-on experience.
Metpro Tribune
Los Angeles or Chicago
Metpro helps beginning journalists launch careers and boost diversity in Tribune newsrooms.
MJ Bear Fellowship
Through the Online News Association, the MJ Bear Fellowships identify and celebrate early-career digital journalists who have demonstrated that they deserve support for their efforts.
Munk School of Global Affairs Global Journalism Fellowship
Toronto, Canada
This fellowship awards 20 fellows the chance to work at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs for media around the world in various platforms from broadcast to online.
National Geographic Photography Fellowship
Various locations
The two-year fellowship allows photographers to share their visual expertise with diverse areas of the National Geographic Society and with the public, producing stories, sharing their storytelling knowledge with other explorers, and bringing the Society’s mission to illuminate, teach, and inspire the world at large.
Reuters Journalism Fellowship Programme
Oxford, UK
This fellowship allows 25 mid-career journalists from around the world to conduct academic research in Oxford for various months in the academic year.
Santa Fe Institute’s Journalism Fellowship In Complex Systems
Santa Fe, NM
The fellowship is for veteran journalists interested in exploring complex systems science more deeply and understanding the issues underlying current scientific debates in many scientific fields. The 2015 application period for this fellowship is postponed.
Scripps Howard Foundation Multimedia Fellowship
Washington DC
This year-long fellowship allows post-graduates to create multimedia projects for the Scripps Howard Foundation Wire’s website as well as mentor undergraduate students. Next year’s application deadline is in April, applications open in December.
The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
Atlanta, GA
The one-year fellowship is offered to six journalists and is designed to enhance public understanding of mental health issues and combat stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness.
Deadline: Apr. 13, 2016
U.S. Presidential Election Reporting Seminar
For mid-career journalists; study tour to report before, during and after the U.S. presidential election from key states in the American electoral system. Program dates: November 1-13, 2016. Application releases early 2016
Sonia Paul is a freelance journalist reporting in India and the United States, and is the editorial assistant at MediaShift. Her work has appeared in a broad range of media, including the Al Jazeera Media Network, Caravan, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Mashable, New York Times, PRI’s The World, Roads & Kingdoms and VICE News. She previously produced the grant-funded podcast series Shizuoka Speaks, based in Japan. She is on Twitter and Instagram @sonipaul.