Monthly Archives: March 2015

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Two Great Opportunities for Women Journalists through the International Women’s Media Foundation

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Thanks to Kimberly Adams @kmanews for forwarding this along!

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The International Women's Media Foundation has two great opportunities open for applications right now. Deadlines are at the end of the month.

First, IWMF is providing a group of women journalists with reporting fellowships to Tanzania and the DRC. The fellowship includes three days of hostile environment training and covers travel, fixers, drivers, and basic expenses for several days of reporting after. I just completed their reporting trip to Uganda, and it's a great program.

http://www.iwmf.org/our-impact/african-great-lakes-reporting-initiative/participate-in-the-initiative/

Also, please see below the press release for IWMF's new grant program for women journalists. You can apply for grants to do just about any kind of interesting reporting projects.

IWMF LAUNCHES THE HOWARD G. BUFFETT FUND FOR WOMEN JOURNALISTS

$2.3 Million to be Awarded to Women Journalists Through 2024
$230,000 to be Awarded in 2015 in Up to Four Funding Rounds

Washington, DC – The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is proud to announce the opening of the Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists. Applications for this inaugural funding round are being accepted March 2 – 23, 2015. An annual total of $230,000 will be awarded to applicants who demonstrate how their proposal will lead to the exposure of under-reported stories, strengthen story-telling skills, develop their expertise or support entrepreneurial media projects.

“Promoting the work and advancing the role of women in the media is critical to transparency and the diversity of voices in the world,” said IWMF Executive Director Elisa Lees Muñoz. "The launch of this Fund marks an unprecedented opportunity to provide significant support to hundreds of journalists on the path to future leadership roles in the news industry.”

The Fund was established by the IWMF in 2014 with a $4 million gift from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation to empower women in the media working around the world.

“This Fund will give outstanding women journalists the ability to turn their reporting ambitions into reality,” said Howard G. Buffett.

At least $2.3 million will be awarded to grantees across all media platforms over the next 10 years. The only prerequisite is that grantees are female journalists working full-time either for a specific media outlet or as a freelancer. The IWMF has left individual grant amounts to be awarded as well as the type of projects intentionally undefined. The submitted proposals will shed a light on the needs of women journalists around the world.

The fund was designed to help women journalists by providing grantees support to:
Expose under-reported but critical global issues
Undertake ambitious projects that challenge traditional media narratives
Develop field-based expertise and strengthen careers
Pursue training and leadership opportunities
Launch entrepreneurial news projects or acquire the skill to do so

The schedule for future 2015 funding rounds will be released on the IWMF website in the coming weeks. Learn more about the Fund and submit proposals at iwmf.org/fund

About the IWMF
For 25 years, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) has been dedicated to strengthening the role of women journalists worldwide. The media is not truly free and representative without the equal voice of women. Our work celebrates the courage of women journalists who overcome threats and oppression to report and bear witness to global issues. Through our programs and grants we empower women journalists with the training, support, and network to become leaders in the news industry. IWMF.org

About the Howard G. Buffett Foundation
Established in 1999, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation (HGBF) is a private family foundation working to improve the standard of living and quality of life for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations. We look for opportunities where our funding is the catalytic capital that seeds sustainable, transformational change. thehowardgbuffettfoundation.org

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Events

panel on grants for international science and environmental reporting, March 28, Washington DC

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If you're in DC and are interested in grants for international science and environmental reporting – check out this panel on Sat, March 28, organized by the DC Science Writers' Association. Plus, there's a panel later in the day on the finances of freelancing. Yup!
On the 2:30 pm panel:
Fund for Investigative Journalism, executive director Sandy Bergo
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, senior producer Steve Sapienza
International Reporting Project, program manager Melody Schreiber
Moderator: Meaghan Parker, Woodrow Wilson Center and board member, Society of Environmental Journalists
The panel is part of a day-long event that includes sessions on pitching stories, storytelling techniques, the Ebola epidemic, and the finances of freelancing.

For more information: http://www.dcswa.org/
Pitches

Latino USA story query

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Call for pitches from Latino USA. Details below!
-mia

Latino USA has an upcoming program in the works called “Abuelos” (grandparents) that we’re seeking pitches for.

Here are the particular angles we’re interested in:

 

  • Older people falling in love;
  • LGBT grandparents;
  • Grandparents’ roles: how they can step into a void or fill other needs for a younger person;
  • Grandparents in the diaspora (especially with split families);
  • Vox from people about what it’s like to be a grandparent or a grandchild (which the show will build into a multi-generational montage).

The pay rate is $125 per minute.

I’m happy to answer specific questions, but please send your pitches directly to: pitches@futuromediagroup.org.

Thanks and all the best,

Leda

 

Leda Hartman

Editor, NPR’s Latino USA

919-542-0008

ledahart@mindspring.com

www.latinousa.org

 

 

 

Events

two upcoming events from the Freelancer’s Union, including a TAX workshop March 11

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One of my favorite resources is the Freelancer's Union. They've got all kinds of inspirational blog posts and resources on their website, and they sponsor super helpful events, both online and in person. Two are below – one for newbies on getting started freelancing (online March 9) and one for everyone on TAXES (cities everywhere March 11). Check it!
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Getting started as a freelancer can be challenging and a little bewildering at first.Where do I find clients? What do I charge? How do I stay sane?! We're here to help!

RSVP to our live webinar on Monday, March 9th at 4:00 pm.

Freelancers Union and General Assembly will be hosting a live webinar to help you get started on your freelance career. Marc Scheff – an artist, art director, educator, entrepreneur, and Hives leader based out of Brooklyn, NY will join Freelancers Union in the webinar. 

In "Freelancing 101: 6 Things No One Tells You About Getting Started," we’ll kick it off by discussing a few topics that we’ve heard from you. You’ll learn how to:

  • Identify your brand, assess your strengths, and optimize your portfolio
  • Understand your client base and obtain your first clients
  • Decide what to charge and how to handle your money
  • Market yourself and effectively network
  • Follow your passion and stay sane doing it

From there, we’ll be giving you an opportunity to ask your questions in a live Q&A with Marc.

RSVP for our live event today!

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Join us for an in-person Spark event on Wednesday, March 11! In cities across America, hundreds of freelancers will learn essential tax tips & meet cool people. Find a Spark event near you.  

Workshops

upcoming workshops from Oral History Summer School

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One of my favorite organizations – Oral History Summer School – is gearing up for their next round of workshops. Additional information on their website and Facebook page. Please share widely! -Mia

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Oral History Summer School was established in Hudson, New York in 2012 to train an international group of students to make use of Oral History in their documentary and artistic practices. This summer, we're also offering specialized short courses for continuing oral historians or those interested in advanced issues in the field.

In the past, workshop participants have included lawyers, writers, social workers, teachers, activists, small business owners, and family historians, among others. As both a methodology and documentary form, Oral History is a means to preserve history, complicate reductive studies, conduct research, mobilize communities, build an ethical interview practice, or

broker difficult conversations (to name a few uses).

This summer’s instructors include Suzanne Snider (Founder/Director OHSS),  Dina Zempsky (Memory Loss Initiative, Storycorps), Sady Sullivan (Columbia University), LJ Amsterdam (Watershed Center),  Sheri-Bauer-Mayorga (Good Globe Singing School), Jeffrey Lependorf (Music Omi International Musicians Residency), Jeremy Thal (Found Sound Nation, One Beat), Nicki Pombier Berger (Nothing About Us Without Us), and Ben Harbert (filmmaker, Follow Me Down)

Workshops

Oral History Intensive with Suzanne Snider, June 12-19
Collecting and Composing: Oral History and Music, June 23-28
Let Us All Our Voices Raise: Memory Loss and Mixed Ability Interviewing, June 29-July 3

More information can be found, here: http://www.oralhistorysummerschool.com/
Apply: http://www.oralhistorysummerschool.com/apply

Workshops

AIR/UnionDocs Full Spectrum Storytelling Intensive, April 27 – May 1

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Applications are open for AIR/UnionDocs Full Spectrum Storytelling Intensive, hosted this year by @karaoehler. Details and links below.
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I'm delighted to be hosting this year's AIR/UnionDocs Full Spectrum Storytelling Intensive in Brooklyn NY from April 27-May 1.

Participants have described it as "summer camp meets nerd paradise." It's a chance for producers of all levels to get away from day-to-day work activities to gain new skills and perspectives from some of the best and most creative in the field and gain a new network of radio colleagues from around the world. Full Spectrum started with Localore and Makers Quest 2.0. AIR and UnionDocs are building on that with a curriculum based on Localore, with instructors who built its projects and other radio heroes and all stars.

Jonathan Mitchell, award-winning creator of “The Truth,” will take people into his brilliant soundscapes by lifting the lid on his Pro-Tools sessions. “This American Life” producer Sean Cole will give insight into his writing and reporting techniques. WNYC's John Keefe will dig into the station's investigative reporting with data. It's really going to be an incredible week.

If you sign up now, you'll get the early bird rate. And go here for more info on speakers, sessions and rates.
Hope to see some of y'all there!

Kara

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2015 Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, deadline March 15

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Details HERE and below on the 2015 Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism, deadline March 15. 

Eligibility and How to Enter

The Knight-Risser Prize is given for journalism in any media that best illuminates an environmental issue or story in western Canada, the United States or Mexico. Entries are not limited to journalists from western news organizations.

The Knight-Risser prize places a premium on stories that expose undiscovered or covered-up problems, explain detailed solutions in ways that can be put to use, and help readers understand the broader significance of the issues being covered, beyond the immediate details of the stories at hand.

The North American West, for the purposes of this award, includes the United States west of the Mississippi River, Canada west of Ontario, including Nunavut, and all of Mexico.

Eligibility and Selection


Journalists working for U.S., Canadian or Mexican newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and online sites accessible to the general public are eligible to apply, as are freelancers.

Those whose work appears in publications or programs connected to government agencies, advocacy organizations, or to business or trade organizations with a financial stake in environmental issues, are not eligible.

Entries must be predominantly about an environmental subject occurring in or affecting the North American West, and must have been published, broadcast or posted during the calendar year of the current prize. Series that began in one year and ended in another are eligible but may be entered only once.

The Knight-Risser Prize administrators and steering committee are the final authority for determining whether an entry is eligible. The entry fee of any entrant deemed ineligible will be refunded.

Entry Form

Instructions and an online entry form are now available for the 2015 Knight-Risser Prize. The deadline for entries to be submitted is Sunday, March 15, 2015.

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Independent Filmmaker Labs deadline is this Friday, March 6

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The Independent Filmmaker Project offers labs for first-time doc makers with films in post production. The deadline for the next round is this Friday. They also do a lab for narrative directors – that deadline is April 3. More info HERE and below.

IFP’s unique year-long mentorship program supports first-time feature directors when they need it most:  through the completion, marketing and distribution of their films.  Focusing exclusively on low-budget features (<$1million), this highly immersive program provides filmmakers with the technical, creative and strategic tools necessary to launch their films – and their careers.

Through the Labs, IFP works to ensure that talented emerging voices receive the support, resources, and industry exposure necessary to reach audiences. Open to all first time feature documentary and narrative directors with films in post-production.

Applications are now open. The deadline for documentary submissions is March 6th, 2015, while the deadline to apply for narrative submissions is April 3rd, 2015.

Click here to apply to the IFP Documentary Lab. Click here to apply to the IFP Narrative Lab.