Latino USA Call for Pitches

Call for pitches from Latino USA. Go for it!

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Below is a list of themes for Latino USA programs coming up in the next few months.

We hope they inspire some creative pitches! Story ideas unrelated to these themes are also welcome.

Please send your ideas directly to pitches@futuromediagroup.org, with details about the story arc, characters, scenes and sounds you envision for your piece. Features generally run from 4-6 minutes long and pay $125 per minute.

Pitch meetings take place on Friday afternoons, and we try to get back to reporters early the following week.

Thanks,

Leda

 

Leda Hartman

Editor, NPR’s Latino USA

919-542-0008

ledahart@mindspring.com

www.latinousa.org

 

GIVE AND TAKE: Stories about gain and loss. They can be personal or not.

 

HOME: Finding home in unusual places. And just what makes home home?

 

TABOO: Crossing lines, saying things you wouldn’t ordinarily say, talking about things people hesitate to talk about.

 

QUALITY CONTROL: How do we evaluate whether something succeeds or fails? Stories can be related to tech or health, but don’t have to be.

 

LATINO ICONS: Sample stories in the pipeline include a musical about baseball great Roberto Clemente, and a California taco restaurant where Mexican-American leaders organized against discrimination.

 

PUERTO RICAN REMIX: All things Borinqueno.

 

AFRO-LATINO: History, music, culture, current issues and events.

 

NERDS: Stories about geeking out, tech, learning more, being a passionate devotee.

 

LATINO HISTORY OF HIP-HOP

 

ON THE GO: Stories about transportation, being mobile, moving, changing, adapting.

 

HACKING: Not just tech, but using shortcuts and work-arounds, and coping generally.

Kitchen Sisters Interviewing & Recording Workshop Comes to KCRW in LA, Friday, November 21

Hey LA folks – my favorite women of radio are bringing their sound workshop to KCRW – Friday, Nov 21, 10am-1pm. Don't miss it! Details below. -Mia
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Dear Friends,

KCRW's Independent Producer Project is bringing The Kitchen Sisters sound, interviewing and recording workshop to KCRW in Santa Monica. Friday morning, November 21 from 10-1:00. This three-hour session is designed for people who want to acquire and hone their skills for an array of audio and media projects: radio, online, podcasts, storytelling, oral histories, audio slideshows, family histories, news, investigative reporting, documentaries and other multimedia platforms.

The workshop will cover interviewing approaches, miking techniques, sound gathering, use of archival audio, field recording techniques, how to make interviewees comfortable, how to frame evocative questions that make for compelling storytelling, what equipment to use and what to pack in your kit, how to build a story, and how to listen.

The workshop is customized to fit the projects you are working on. People who attend come from radio, film, multimedia, newspapers, blogs, journalism, photography, oral history, historical societies, music, writing, libraries, archives, web design, detective agencies, farms, universities, restaurants, health care organizations, theaters, electrician's unions and beyond. The groups are always lively and good contacts are made.

Of course, snacks will be served.

The workshop will be held at KCRW / 1900 Pico Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90405.

Fee: $135.00. Register at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/898133.

Questions? Email us at kitchen@kitchensisters.org. And please pass this announcement along to your community.

Expand your skills, meet new people, support KCRW and the work of The Kitchen Sisters.

See you at the station,

Davia & Nikki

call for pitches from Making Contact, October 2014

Call for pitches from the fine (award-winning!) folks at Making Contact. Details and submissions guidelines below.
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Dear Freelancers,

We’re looking for pitches from freelancers on several themes. If you feel
you have a story that fits or a new idea, please let us know!

We’re also always interested in pitches on any of our regular beats:
prisons, poverty, corporations’ undue influence, reproductive health,
climate change and the environment.

Guns

We're looking for stories that bring new perspectives on guns and gun
violence. These could be personal stories, for example, you could focus on
an ex-NRA member who now opposes guns, or a 60s radical who still advocates
their use. They could also be more investigative/ explanatory pieces.
Perhaps a look at ALEC involvement in crafting gun policies or a look at
the international arms trade. We'd also welcome other pitches related to
guns, maybe the economics of gun manufacturing or creative community
responses to gun violence.

Coffee Shop Workers

Starbucks workers are in the news for attempting to form their own union.
We’re looking for a report on how workers in coffee shops are organizing
for wage increases or better working conditions.

The state of long-term caregiving

By 2030 the number of senior citizens is expected to double to 72.1 million
<http://www.agingstats.gov/main_site/data/2012_documents/docs/entirechartbook.pdf>. 

As more seniors move into older age brackets the demand for a younger
generation of workers and family members to help with day to day life will
grow. We’re looking for stories that have a fresh perspective on providing
long-term caregiving to seniors and disabled people. Stories that explore
the quality of care, conditions in the workplace, the effect on care
recipients and givers, and the availability of supportive services in a
community or lack thereof. What are the race/class/gender dimensions of
people in this workforce?  We’d also be interested in stories from the
perspective of elders who are inventing new senior care arrangements based
on communal models and multigenerational living arrangements.

Five Years after Deepwater Horizon

Considered the worst in U.S. history, back in 2010 oil spilled into the
Gulf of Mexico for 87 days. 5 years later, what are the effects of the
estimated 176 million gallons of oil that spewed into the Gulf? Has BP
really taken responsibility, and what has happened since? We are also
interested in stories about BP in other parts of the world. What is this
company’s global environmental legacy? Where are other communities battling
this particular oil giant? How has BP worked to regain their public
reputation since 2010 (this might be a story about their PR effort)

Specifications

Making Contact is an award-winning
<http://www.radioproject.org/aboutus/honors-and-awards/>, 29-minute weekly
magazine/documentary-style public affairs program heard on 140 radio
stations in the USA, Canada, South Africa, and Australia.  Amplifying
voices and perspectives rarely heard in mainstream media, Making Contact
focuses on the human realities of politics and the connections between
local and global events, emphasizing positive and creative ways to solve
problems.

This call for pitches is for segments of about 8 minutes (unless otherwise
noted), and we pay $450 per story of this length. but we also occasionally
take longer pieces (12 or 26 minutes).

As with any pitches you send us, please check out our show and read our
guidelines before you pitch.

http://www.radioproject.org/production/submission-guidelines/

Consider the following. Does the story:

   – Link grassroots issues and human realities to national or international
   trends?
   – Give listeners a historical, political, or social context of major
   national and international events?
   – Shed light on social and economic inequities?
   – Explore any alternatives or solutions?

Send pitches to pitches@radioproject.org. Please be detailed but succinct,
and include a description of your idea, narrative/story arc, interview
subjects, scenes, and sounds/ambi. If you’re pitching to us for the first
time, please include a brief bio and relevant audio clips.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Laura Flynn, Jasmin Lopez, Andrew Stelzer & George Lavender

Making Contact producers

Call for Submissions I.F. Stone Award for Emerging Journalists, deadline Nov 24

Attention teachers and students. Help spread the word about the I.F. Stone Award from The Investigative Fund supporting original investigative reporting by emerging journalists. Deadline Nov 24. Details below. -Mia

The next deadline for the I.F. Stone Award for emerging journalists, offered by The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, is November 24, 2014 at 5 p.m. Eastern. The award was created to support original investigative reporting by emerging journalists, such as journalism graduate students, recent graduates, and journalism interns.
 
We ask that you please post and circulate the attached call for submissions and encourage promising candidates to apply. The award will support the projects of one to two prize-winners and is meant to support stories that will appear in U.S. media outlets.
 
Winners of the prize will be selected by the editors of The Investigative Fund and announced in January. The emerging journalists with winning proposals will receive between $2,000 and $10,000, depending upon the applicants' budget request and the stories' reporting requirements. In addition, the winners will receive editorial guidance from Investigative Fund editors; access as needed to Nexis, Accurint, PACER, and libel review; and placement assistance in a print, broadcast, or online outlet. Thanks to generous support from Investigative Reporters & Editors, winners will also be able to attend, at no cost, the next IRE conference in Philadelphia in June 2015.
 
The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute is dedicated to improving the scope and quality of investigative reporting by incubating important investigative stories with the potential for social impact. By providing reporters with editorial guidance, institutional support, and financial support, The Investigative Fund has produced stories that have sparked federal indictments, lawsuits, Congressional investigations, legislation, and the resignation of public officials. Our investigations have appeared in a wide array of outlets, including NPR and PBS as well as The NationHarper’sThe New York Times, The New York Review of BooksMother Jones, Newsweek, Time, Glamour, and GQ. Our stories have also won some of journalism’s top awards, including the Polk, the National Magazine Award, and the Hillman Prize.
 
The I.F. Stone Award honors Stone’s legacy of tireless investigations into issues of vital national interest. As Washington editor of The Nation and founder of the legendary I.F. Stone’s Weekly, Stone combined his investigative zeal with a passionate commitment to exposing injustice. In 1943, after publishing an exposé revealing the questions used by the FBI to identify “subversives” among government workers ("Does he mix with Negroes? Does he… have too many Jewish friends?”), Stone became a target of FBI surveillance. His weekly publication became known for offering up content that other media outlets ignored—such as obscure but revealing testimony at Congressional hearings—and for unsanitized coverage of the Vietnam War.
 
Please feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about this award or our broader work.
Sarah Blustain

  

Sarah Blustain
Deputy Editor, The Investigative Fund
The Nation Institute

doc icon IFStone-Submission-Guidelines.docx

WNYC’s Death, Sex, and Money seeks spring intern

I don't often post internships, but I love this show. Get in on the ground floor of a fab new program. No deadline listed.


https://hire.jobvite.com/Jobvite/jobvite.aspx?b=nAQWLow0

Death, Sex & Money Internship – Spring 2015
New York, NY

NYPR seeks a  highly motivated intern for “Death, Sex & Money,” the bi-weekly podcast about the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more, hosted by Anna Sale and produced by WNYC. 

The intern will work with the entire DSM staff to learn how to create content for the podcast and the website. The successful candidate will be passionate, curious and informed about a wide range of topics.

submission call for 60 second radio art works, deadline Nov 14

Call for submissions from Wave Farm/WGXC. Deadline Nov 14. Details below. Fun! -Mia

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Nov 14//Open Call for 60×60 Wave Farm Mix 
Vox Novus's 60×60 and Wave Farm are calling for one-minute radio art works! Vox Novus and Wave Farm are delighted to collaborate on a special edition of 60×60 focused on Radio Art. Artists are invited to submit recorded works (created with, for, about radio and transmission) with durations of 60 seconds, to be included in the eleventh annual 60×60 project; a FM broadcast on Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM; and distributed as a Wave Farm Dispatch Series download. 60 compositions will be selected to be played continuously in a one-hour live event and broadcast. 

http://wgxc.org/events/11729?utm_source=Wave

Working with Music in Audio Storytelling at CDS Nov 22-23

Course on using music in production at CDS next month. Course description and link to sign up below. -Mia
What happens in the alchemical moment when a voice telling a story is transformed—whether suddenly or almost imperceptibly—by the music placed underneath it? When is the use of music honest? When is it essential? When is it dishonest or distracting? In this weekend workshop, we’ll explore techniques for using music to enhance audio storytelling, whether your primary interest is in podcasting, personal storytelling, oral history, or radio journalism. 

How many times have you been stumped by the question of what music to use in a piece? This is your chance to develop an ear for what to use, and a resource list of where to find it. 

The weekend of Nov 22-23 at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, I'm set to again offer my workshop on "Working with Music in Audio Storytelling." We had a great group last fall, with participants from NC, VA and MD, coming to the workshop with a wide range of backgrounds in production and audio work.

For more info, and to register, scroll to the bottom of this page:

http://register.asapconnected.com/Courses.aspx?CourseGroupID=500

Soup to Nuts 2-day documentary radio training, Dec 6-7, Bay Area

The incomparable Claire Schoen is offering her 2-day doc radio production training in December. Don't miss it! Details below. -Mia

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Dear Radio People,

 

I'm offering my Soup-to-Nuts weekend again in the San Francisco Bay Area on:

December 6 & 7. 2014.

Please see the description below.

 

If you are interested in attending, please do get in touch (cschoen@earthlink.net) as the class sometimes fills quickly.

 

AND… check out my website!

<<claireschoenmedia.com>>

Under “Teaching” you can find feedback from previous “Soup-to-Nuts” students.

Under “Biography” you can find out more than you’d ever want to know about me.

Under “Productions” you can listen to the past 25 years of my audio work.

 

I hope you can join us in December.

Best, Claire Schoen

 

Claire Schoen Media

claireschoenmedia.com

cschoen@earthlink.net

510-882-6164

 

 

======================================================

 

"From Soup to Nuts"

A 2-day intensive

on documentary radio production

offered in the San Francisco Bay Area

 

Logistics:

This seminar will be held December 6 & 7, 2014.

Each day's class will run from 10 am to 5:30 pm,

including 6 hours of class work, plus lunch and breaks.

 

It will be held at Claire’s studio in Berkeley, California

Class will be limited to 8 students.

The cost of the 2-day seminar is $250.

 

The Course:

Through lectures, group discussion, Q & A, written handouts, and lots of audio demos, this two-day class will explore the ins and outs of creating a long-form radio documentary. Designed to meet the needs of mid-level producers, this seminar will also be accessible to individuals who have little or no experience in radio production.

 

Compelling audio documentary incorporates a creative weave of elements including narration, interviews, music, vérité scenes, character portraits, dramatizations, performances, archival tape and ambience beds. Students learn how these elements serve to paint a picture in sound.

 

Emphasis will be put on the production process. To this end, the class will examine the steps of concept development, research, pre-production, recording techniques, interviewing, writing, organizing tape, scripting, editing and mixing required to create an audio documentary.

 

Most importantly, we will focus on the art of storytelling. We will discuss dramatic structure, taking the listener through introduction, development and resolution of a story. And we will explore how character development brings the listener to the heart of the story.

 

The Teacher:

Claire Schoen is a media producer, with a special focus on documentary radio. As a producer/director, she has created over 25 long-form radio documentaries and several documentary films, as well as numerous short works. As a sound designer she has recorded, edited and mixed sound for film, video, radio, webstory, museums and theater productions. Her radio documentaries have garnered numerous awards including the SEJ, NFCB, Gracie, Clarion, PASS and New York International Festival. She has also shared in both a Peabody and a DuPont-Columbia award.

 

Claire has taught documentary radio production at U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, AIR's mentorship program, the Third Coast Festival Conference and other venues.

 

To Register:

Contact Claire Schoen

cschoen@earthlink.net    510-882-6164     www.claireschoenmedia.com

 


pdf icon StoNs-Flier2014-Dec.pdf

ABC’s Creative Audio Unit seeks pitches for upcoming shows, deadline Oct 27

Pitch down under! The folks at ABC's Radiotonic and Soundproof want your pitches for their next round of shows. Details and pitching guidelines in the links below. Go for it!

-Mia

We're coming up on a deadline (October 27) for our next round of commissions, so if you've been thinking about pitching:
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/soundproof/about/
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/radiotonic/about/

Best to send your short pitch sooner than later, so you have time to develop a full proposal if we're interested.

New project from The World seeks pitches on the status of women and their communities, deadline ASAP

Holy WOW – what a great opportunity from PRI's The World. (Important topic! Travel budget! Multimedia!!) The word from the acting editor is that they're looking for a very high level of reporting here, so not for newbies. Details and contact info below. -Mia

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We wanted to let you know about an exciting new initiative The World and our partners at pri.org are undertaking over the next 18 months.
 
It’s working title is Across Women’s Lives, and it will focus on the relationship between the status of women around the world and the status of their larger communities and societies. In particular it will examine the questions of whether, and if so how, particular improvements in the status of women leverage improvements in “development” and quality of life indicators for everyone. (And if not, why not?)
 
Our working project summary is below. The reason I’m writing to you now is that we’re looking for pitches. The series will have a special focus on India and sub-Saharan Africa, but we’ll be looking for stories everywhere. And while the focus here is specific, the kinds of stories we’re looking for are the same as always: driven by strong characters, strong voices, strong sound and strong writing.
 
We’ll be paying our usual rates for these pieces but we do have a healthy budget for travel. That doesn’t mean you should think first of big trips away from your home base—there might well be great stories right in your local areas—but if you’ve got a great idea for a story that would require travel, and can sell us on it, we might well be able to make it happen.
 
We’re also planning to build a significant multimedia component into every story, including a fully-produced stand-alone video. Sometimes the same reporter could produce both of these, other times it would involve pairing the radio reporter with a video journalist. And of course if the same reporter produces both, you’ll be paid for both.
 
We’re in the process of hiring a dedicated editor for this project, but until we do, please send any story ideas to me.
 
And we’re on a pretty aggressive timetable to launch, so if you have a great story along these lines that you’ve been itching to do, send along a pitch as soon as you can.
 
As always, thanks for thinking of us and we look forward to working with some of you on this project.
 
Best, from Boston,
 
Peter Thomson
Acting Editor, Across Women’s Lives
 
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PROJECT SUMMARY
 
PRI’s The World and pri.org are launching a high-profile, 15-month reporting project on the status of women around the world. The “Across Women’s Lives” project (working title) will deploy radio & multimedia producers working independently and together to produce top-quality feature stories on:
* Efforts to improve the well-being of communities by raising the status of women and girls, especially in India and sub-Saharan Africa;
* Links between the status of women and girls in developing countries and broader social indicators of health, education and economic opportunity for society;
* Women, men and organizations making a difference in the lives of their families and communities by working to improve the status of women.
 
The reports will be broadcast on The World and featured on pri.org starting in December, 2014 and will be clustered around five stages of women’s lives: birth and infancy, early childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, middle age, and old age.
 
 
Peter Thomson
Environment Editor, PRI's The World
Author, Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal

 
@bluepearmain