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 let us know by contacting Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org and we’ll add them to the list. All featured fellowships are paid promotional slots. Fellowship descriptions are excerpts, edited for length and clarity.
SEPTEMBER 2016 & BEYOND DEADLINES
Ochberg Fellowship
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
The Ochberg Fellowship enables outstanding journalists from around the globe to explore these critical issues during a week of seminars held at Columbia University in New York City. Program activities include briefings by prominent interdisciplinary experts in the trauma and mental health fields; conversations with journalist colleagues on issues of ethics and craft; and a variety of other opportunities for intellectual engagement and peer learning.
Deadline: Sep. 30, 2016
BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellowship
New York City and Los Angeles
With the mission of diversifying the broader media landscape by investing in the next generation of necessary voices, BuzzFeed’s Emerging Writers Fellowship is designed to give writers of great promise the support, mentorship, and experience necessary to take a transformative step forward in their careers. During the four-month program, the writers in this fellowship will benefit from career mentorship and editorial guidance while also receiving financial support. The fellows will focus on personal essay writing, cultural reportage, and criticism.
Deadline: Oct. 1, 2016
The Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program
San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City
So you want to be a journalist. You want to learn how a great magazine comes together, how to cover breaking news, how investigations happen, how awards are won. You want skills, you want experience, you wouldn’t mind cash. Well, you’ve come to the right place. The Ben Bagdikian Fellowship Program offers a crash course in investigative journalism. It also supports emerging journalists and media professionals, allowing them to make invaluable contributions to a high-flying news organization. Mother Jones fellows dive deep into every aspect of a national multimedia outfit—from making news to making it pretty, ensuring its impact, and mastering the inner workings of nonprofit publishing. You should be ready to drill down into complex research, fact-checking, and strategic projects, and have the reporting bona fides or other relevant experience to show you’re ready.
Deadline: Oct. 1, 2016
Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship
The Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship was launched in 2013 as a new component of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. It provides opportunities for U.S. citizens to participate in an academic year of overseas travel and digital storytelling in one, two, or three countries on a globally significant theme. This Fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the National Geographic Society. Fellows publish stories on the Fulbright-National Geographic Stories blog.
Deadline: Oct. 11, 2016, 5:00 p.m. ET
Reynolds Business Journalism Week Fellowships
Business journalists and journalism educators are invited to apply for fellowships to take part in the 11th annual Reynolds Business Journalism Week at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism will select 24 fellows for the training, which will cover how to find and cover business angles in any story and where to find economic and financial data. Reynolds Week will take place Jan. 4-6, 2017, at the Cronkite School’s state-of-the-art building in downtown Phoenix.
Deadline: Oct. 16, 2016
Kiplinger Fellowships
Columbus, Ohio
Kiplinger Fellows typically spend a week in April on Ohio State’s main campus in Columbus, where they receive cutting-edge training on digital tools and tactics from leading industry experts. Topics include social media for reporting, branding and audience engagement; spreadsheets and data visualization; smartphone videography; and media ethics. The highly coveted fellowships provide lodging, most meals and free training – thanks to the generosity of the Kiplinger Foundation and Kiplinger family.
Deadline: Oct. 31, 2016
High Country News Fellowship
Paonia, Colorado
High Country News is looking for informed and enthusiastic editorial interns and fellows to report on natural resource, environmental and community issues in the 11 Western states. High Country News, published twice-monthly in Paonia, Colorado, is a nonprofit newsmagazine and website “for people who care about the West.” The magazine reaches 25,000 subscribers — an estimated 60,000 readers — and the website reaches thousands more, including grassroots activists, public land managers, tribal officials, government policymakers, educators, students and interested citizens.
Deadline: Nov. 1, 2016
Grist Fellowship Program – Editorial, Video, and Justice Fellowships
Seattle (or remote, if applying for justice fellowship)
The Grist Fellowship Program is an opportunity to hone your skills at a national news outlet and deepen your understanding of environmental issues. We’re looking for early-career journalists with a variety of skills, from traditional reporting to multimedia whizbangery. We will offer exposure to the leading sustainability thinkers and theories of our time, real-world experience at a fast-paced news site, and the occasional “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” debate. We are an independent nonprofit media organization that shapes the country’s environmental conversations, making green second nature for our monthly audience of 2.5 million and growing. At Grist, green isn’t about hugging trees or hiking — it’s about using humor and straight talk to connect big issues like climate change to real people and how they live, work, and play.
Deadline: Nov. 8, 2016
Roy H. Park Fellowships
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The University of North Carolina School of Media and Journalism awards seven or eight new doctoral students and seven or eight incoming residential master’s students with Park Fellowships. All Park Fellows work as graduate assistants 15 hours per week. Assignments vary according to the needs of the school and faculty, and the interests and skill levels of the students. Due to the work requirement of the fellowships and the academic demands of the program, Park Fellows may not work outside the school during the academic year without approval from the associate dean for graduate studies prior to the employment. Roy H. Park Fellowships are available only to U.S. citizens. There is no special application; all qualified applicants will be considered for Park Fellowships.
Deadline: Dec. 13, 2016
ROLLING DEADLINES
Outside Editorial Fellowship
The fellowship is a six-month, paid position in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Duties include fact-checking, reporting, research, proofreading, and assorted support chores for the editorial department. Fellows occasionally have the opportunity to write short pieces for the magazine and website, and they will attend editorial meetings, work closely with top editors, and gain hands-on experience at an award-winning magazine.
Deadline: Rolling
Holly Whisenhunt Stephen Fellowship, Investigative Reporters & Editors
Send broadcast and/or radio journalists to IRE’s weeklong Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) Boot Camp series. The fellowships were established by IRE and WTHR-Indianapolis to honor Stephen, an award-winning journalist and longtime IRE member who died in Nov. 2008 after a long battle with cancer.
Deadline: Rolling — 60 days before the Boot Camp you are applying to attend.
Ottaway Fellowships, Investigative Reporters & Editors
Established by David Ottaway and the Ottaway Family Fund to send a limited number of professional journalists to IRE’s weeklong Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) Boot Camp series. These fellowships are aimed at increasing the diversity of IRE’s membership. Applicants for this award should identify themselves with one of the following minority groups: Black/African American, American Indian/Alaskan, Native American, Asian-American, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino.
Deadline: Rolling — 60 days before the Boot Camp you are applying to attend.
R-CAR Fellowship, Investigative Reporters & Editors
The Fund for Rural Computer-Assisted Reporting helps a journalist from a news organization in a rural area attend one of IRE’s week-long CAR boot camps. It was established by IRE member Daniel Gilbert to give rural reporters skills that will help them uncover stories that otherwise would not come to light. The fellowship is offered in conjunction with The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
Deadline: Rolling — 60 days before the Boot Camp you are applying to attend.
IN PROGRESS OR FUTURE FELLOWSHIPS
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 2016 internship is closed. Questions may be emailed to [email protected].
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.
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.
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 News Lab Fellowships
Various locations
The Google News Lab Fellowship offers students interested in journalism and technology the opportunity to spend the summer working at relevant organizations across the U.S. to gain valuable experience and make lifelong contacts and friends.
Knight-Mozilla Fellowship
Various locations
The Knight-Mozilla Fellowship places creative technologists in newsrooms to work on open-source tools and support reporting that strengthens the web and changes people’s lives. Knight-Mozilla Fellows spend 10 months working with newsroom technology teams to write open-source code, analyze and visualize data, and explore tough problems facing journalism.
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.
Reuters Journalism Fellowship Program
Oxford, UK
This fellowship allows 25 mid-career journalists from around the world to conduct academic research at the University of Oxford.
Ben DeJarnette is the associate editor at MediaShift. He is also a freelance contributor for Pacific Standard, InvestigateWest, Men’s Journal, Runner’s World, Oregon Quarterly and others. He’s on Twitter @BenDJduck.
