Tax Tips for the Self-Employed workshops in SF and Berkeley, Jan 24 + 31

Hello all. For those of you who've been with Freelance Cafe for a long time, you'll remember our tax season workshops with SF indie CPA Jason Stallcup. Jason is an amazing wealth of knowledge about tax stuff for freelancers, and he presents the information in a way that actually makes sense. He and his associate are presenting their workshop again this year, once at Sandbox Suites SF and once in Berkeley. Details below. Spread the word!
Best,
Mia

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Tax Tips for the Self-Employed in San Francisco on Tuesday, Jan. 24 http://taxsandbox.eventbrite.com/

Tax Tips for the Self-Employed in Berkeley on Tuesday, Jan. 31 http://taxtipsberkeley.eventbrite.com/


International Documentary Challenge Registration Open, deadline Feb 29

Interesting competition for doc filmmakers. Details HERE and below. Final deadline Feb 29.
-mia

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The International Documentary Challenge is coming up quick! Now in its 7th
year, the Doc Challenge takes place March 1-5, 2012 with registration now
open to filmmakers worldwide.

The premise is simple; filmmakers will push their skills to the limit by
making a short (4-7 minute) documentary in just five days. Top films will
make their world premiere at North America's largest documentary festival,
the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Filmmakers are
assigned a theme (e.g. Dreams/Nightmares) and must choose between two
assigned documentary genres (Character Study, Music, 1st Person, etc.)
These two requirements provide a challenge to filmmakers, as it will shape
the content and direction their film takes.

In addition to making their world premiere at Hot Docs, three major awards
will also be announced at the festival. Awards include The American
Documentary/P.O.V. Award, The Documentary Educational Resources (DER) Award
and the Best Film Award (presented by the Documentary Channel.) There are
also cash prizes for award winners. Additionally, online viewing and voting
will determine an Audience Award winner. After the premiere, there are
additional theatrical screenings in major cities, national television
exposure (10 films from 2011 were selected for national broadcast on the
Documentary Channel) and a DVD release of the best films.

Check out the Doc Challenge website where you can learn more about the
event, view films and hear directly from past participants about their
exhilarating experiences:

http://www.docchallenge.org/

IMPORTANT DATES:
Registration: NOW OPEN Sign up
now<https://www.docchallenge.org/sign-up.html?utm_source=Doclists&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IDC2012>

Early Registration Deadline: February 14, 2012
Final Registration Deadline: February 29, 2012
Doc Challenge: March 1-5, 2012

Hot Docs Dates: April 26 – May 06, 2012

Complete details and entry forms can be found at www.docchallenge.org

Doc Challenge is produced by Kat Touschner of KDHX Media. 2012 Presenting
Partners include Hot Docs, The Documentary Channel, American
Documentary/P.O.V. and Documentary Educational Resources. Supporting
partners include the International Documentary Association, the Documentary
Organization of Canada, DocuMentors, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival,
Dokufest, Docs In Progress and the 48 Hour Film Project.

The International Documentary Challenge.
Real Life. Filmed Real Fast.

Google-sponsored Data Journalism Awards, deadline April 10

First ever awards for data-driven investigative reporting, visualization/storytelling, and mobile apps. Cool. Details HERE and pasted below.

Best,Mia

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Data Journalism Awards now accepting submissions

1/19/2012 06:55:00 AM

Last November, we announced our support for a new Data Journalism competition, organized by the Global Editors Network. The competition is now open to submissions and today we hosted an event at our offices in London to share details on how to compete and win a total of six prizes worth EUR 45,000. The European Journalism Centre is running the contest and Google is sponsoring.

Journalism is going through an exciting—if sometimes wrenching—transition from off to online. Google is keen to help. We see exciting possibilities of leveraging data to produce award-winning journalism. “Data journalism is a new, exciting part of the media industry, with at present only a small number of practitioners,” said Peter Barron, Google’s Director of External Relations. “We hope to see the number grow.”

In data journalism, reporters leverage numerical data and databases to gather, organize and produce news. Bertrand Pecquerie, the Global Editor Network’s CEO, believes the use of data will, in particular, revolutionize investigative reporting. “We are convinced that there is a bright future for journalism,” he said at the London event. “This is not just about developing new hardware like tablets. It is above all about producing exciting new content.”

The European Journalism Centre, a non-profit based in Maastricht, has been running data training workshops for several years. It is producing the Data Journalism Awards website and administering the prize. “This new initiative should help convince editors around the world that data journalism is not a crazy idea, but a viable part of the industry,” says Wilfried Ruetten, Director of the center.

Projects should be submitted to http://www.datajournalismawards.org. The deadline is April 10, 2012. Entries should have been published or aired between April 11, 2011 and April 10, 2012. Media companies, non-profit organisations, freelancers and individuals are eligible. 

Submissions are welcomed in three categories: data-driven investigative journalism, data-driven applications and data visualisation and storytelling. National and international projects will be judged separately from local and regional ones. “We wanted to encourage not only the New York Times’s of the world to participate, but media outlets of all sizes,” says Pecquerie. “Journalism students are also invited to enter, provided their work has been published.”

An all-star jury has been assembled of journalists from prestigious international media companies including the New York Times, the Guardian and Les Echos. Paul Steiger, the former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal and founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winningProPublica, will serve as president.

Winners will be announced at the Global News Network’s World Summit in Paris on May 31, 2012. 

Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, Deadline January 19

$5K award for coverage of violence, crime, disaster, and trauma. Deadline is January 19.
Best,
Mia

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma

Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma:
Deadline January 19

 

Dear friends and colleagues,

 

There is now less than a week to submit work for the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma. Please spread the word.

 

Open to North American journalism in all media, the Dart Awards honor innovative, ethical and effective reporting on the impact of violence, crime, disaster and other traumatic events. Dart Award winners, who receive a $5,000 prize, rise above the ordinary in focusing on the experience of victims and survivors, and contributing to public understanding on trauma-related issues.

 

The deadline for entries is January 19, 2012, for work published or broadcast in 2011.

 

Details and entry materials are online.

 

Questions and inquiries should be sent to Kate Black, associate director of programs.

 

Best,

 

Bruce

 

Bruce Shapiro
Executive Director
Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

NY Press Club Awards for Journalism, deadline April 9

Information HERE and below about the New York Press Club annual awards. Deadline April 9.
-mia

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Entries open for the 2012 New York Press Club Awards for Journalism on Monday, January 30th, 2012 and close on Monday, April 9th. Winners will be announced in early May. Presentations will be made in early June at our annual Journalism Awards Dinner.

SOME AWARD CATEGORIES HAVE CHANGED FROM PREVIOUS YEARS. Click the Downloads tab above to view and/or download details and entry materials for the 2012 competition.

When entries open, submissions must be made in digital form as described in "Tech Specs." Entries must be submitted from this Web page.


An enduring tradition in New York media, the annual New York Press Club Awards For Journalism honor excellence in the craft by writers, reporters, editors, producers, shooters and multimediographers.


Entries are considered in more than 20 categories of reporting from material submitted by New York metropolitan area news organizations and individual journalists. 


Judging is by prominent working journalists, former journalists and academics who are selected for their expertise in each category.


Awards unique to the New York Press Club competition are the Gold Keyboard Award, honoring excellence in investigative journalism; Nellie Bly Cub Reporter, honoring the best journalistic effort by an individual new to the profession and The Rev. Mychal Judge Heart of New York Award for reporting that is most complimentary of New York City.

Upcoming events at the UC Berkeley J-School

Here are the latest public events from UC Berkeley's J-School. Good stuff!

-mia

++++++++++++++++++++

The Renaissance of Local News


When:
Friday, January 27,  5:00 PM

Where: North Gate Hall

The inaugural event in honor of the Robert A. Peck Chair in Journalism at Berkeley.

Jim Brady – Journal Register Company’s Editor-in-Chief and Editor-in-Chief of Digital First Media

Lydia Chavez – Professor and Robert A. Peck Chair at the Graduate School of Journalism and Editor-in-Chief of Mission Loc@l

Ken Doctor
– Media industry analyst, author of Newsonomics: Twelve New Trends That Will Shape the News You Get

Lisette Mejia
– Master’s Candidate 2012, Graduate School of Journalism and reporter for Mission Loc@l

Chris Peck – Editor, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis

Seating is limited – RSVP required: juliehirano@berkeley.edu | 510.642.3394


Thomas Peele | Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist

When: Monday, February 13,  6:00 PM

Where: North Gate Hall Library

On the morning of August 2, 2007, journalist Chauncey Bailey, editor of the weekly Oakland Post, was gunned down in broad daylight and died.

Investigating police would soon uncover the motive behind Bailey's shocking murder: to stop a story.  Bailey was working on an article about Your Black Muslim Bakery, an Oakland institution posing as a charitable organization but uncovered as a criminal and violent one.  The Bakery was founded by a man named Joseph Stephens who later took the name Yusuf Ali Bey. Bey preached of Black Power and fundamental Black Muslim beliefs, while behind the scenes he led a violent cult. When he died in 2003, a bloody internal struggle ensued with Bey’s son, Yusuf Bey IV, eventually seizing control. Under Bey IV, the Bakery began to crumble and fell into bankruptcy. As Chauncey Bailey was investigating the Bakery and the Beys, Bey IV ordered his assassination.

Outraged by Bailey’s murder, a group of California journalists, known as The Chauncey Bailey Project, banded together to finish Bailey's work, help bring his assassins to justice, and prove that “you can't kill a story by killing the messenger.” Now, in KILLING THE MESSENGER: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist, Thomas Peele, an award-winning investigative reporter and member of The Chauncey Bailey Project, provides the first comprehensive narrative examination of Bailey's murder by bringing to light the astonishing series of events that led to his death.

KILLING THE MESSENGER explores the origins and history of the Black Muslim movement, the rise of Elijah Muhammad as a Muslim leader in Oakland and the separatist cult known as the Beys. Drawing from his research and the investigative reporting of The Chauncey Bailey Project, Peele weaves present-day events together with history to show how years of corruption, abuse, and propaganda resulted in one of the most shocking and gruesome attacks on a working journalist and the First Amendment in recent American history.

Books will be available for purchase.

Seating is limited – RSVP required: juliehirano@berkeley.edu | 510.642.3394

VALLEY OF SHADOWS & DREAMS: Reception and Book Signing
and Current Exhibition at the North Gate Hall Gallery (January 17-May 15, 2012)

When: Friday, March 16, 6:00 PM

Where: North Gate Hall Room 105

Photography by Ken Light | Text by Melanie Light | Forward by Thomas Steinbeck

“Valley of Shadows and Dreams explores a different California from the one that most people know—a California far from Hollywood and Malibu and San Francisco, a California that in some elemental respects has not changed much since the days of the Spanish conquistadors.  The same sort of manual labor prevails in the fields, the same exploitation of the weakest and poorest still blights the land.  In this book you will find a powerful indictment not only of what has happened lately in America's largest state, but also of what is happening across this country right now. The abuse of illegal immigrants, environmental degradation, the madness of a real estate bubble, and all the other problems of the Central Valley are unfortunately relevant nationwide.  Ken and Melanie Light bring great compassion and an eye for beauty to this subject, facing hard truths but refusing to despair.  As John Steinbeck argued more than seventy years ago, the demand for justice and the need for true democracy are timeless, essential things.”

—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation

2012 Hale Fellowship from PRI’s The World, deadline Feb 8

Hey folks. PRI's The World is inviting three reporters to join their newsroom for one week each. Fellowship deadline, February 8. Details HERE and below. -Mia

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PRI’s The World is looking for U.S.-based public radio reporters interested in coming to Boston to spend one week in residence in our newsroom!

Hale Fellows will spend the week working with World staff to produce stories that highlight how international issues have an impact on the United States, or how U.S. issues can have a global impact. Applicants should describe stories they would be interested in pursuing as part of their fellowship.

Following the residency, we hope Hale Fellows will have gained new insight into the kind of global-local connections that can make a U.S. news story a World story.

Fellowship opportunities are open to public radio reporters who are either station-based or freelancers. Three reporters will be chosen from the pool of applicants to complete three separate one-week residencies during March, April, and May of 2012. Applicants should state which month would be preferable. The fellowship covers travel and lodging expenses, as well as a stipend.

The Hale Fellowship program honors former PRI Board Chair Roger Hale and his substantial support for PRI’s The World.

For more information please contact Katherine Griffin at PRI’s The World at katherine.griffin@bbc.co.uk

Download the application here.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, February 8, 2012

PT producer at Making Contact, Oakland, CA

The great people at Making Contact are looking for a half-time radio producer. The gig is in Oakland, CA. Details below.
Best, Mia
+++++++++++++++++++

Making Contact Producer (part-time) Work Location: Oakland, CA

more info at www.radioproject.org

 

Making Contact /National Radio Project seeks a part-time (20 hours/week) radio producer with a passion for public-interest community media, to create a world where peace and social justice are paramount.

 

National Radio Project is a nonprofit media organization that produces the weekly, nationally syndicated, progressive radio series Making Contact. Our high quality public-affairs and documentary radio programs are broadcast on 139 radio stations in the U.S., Canada, and South Africa; thousands more listen via our website and podcasts. Our award winning work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California Chapter, among others.

 

We seek an energetic, passionate, organized team-player with solid experience. The candidate should understand the craft of long-format feature production as well as the art of a good in-depth interview. The candidate will also be able to work efficiently on quick turn-around program segments. Our program is a blend of evocative stories with analysis, and explores the relationship between individuals, groups and systems. We vary our program format from week to week from sound rich docs to straight-ahead compelling speeches. We’re looking for someone committed to our greater mission and who is willing to do whatever it takes to produce our weekly show and to strengthen Making Contact as a whole.

 

National Radio Project /Making Contact is more than a radio program. We thrive on the participation of volunteers and interns. We train community members in radio production as possible while meeting deadlines. We seek someone who can mentor others and is excited about growing and learning in their own work. We’re looking for a journalist who respects the knowledge of community members, social movement activists and academics in helping to conceptualize and create pieces that inform, inspire, and move people to take action.

 

Required Skills/Experience

Demonstrated writing and script editing skills

Demonstrated audio editing skills

Strong voice-craft skills and experience

Track record of journalistic work –dedicated to fairness, accuracy and fact-checking

Ability to read and synthesize research

Familiarity with issues of our times and timeless issues

Track record of delivering pieces on deadline (even if it means it's not "everything you want it to be" 🙂

Commitment to building Making Contact as a whole, and to participating in a team process

Willingness to participate in fundraising

 

Preferred Skills

Experience coaching and editing freelance reporters and producers

Multimedia experience:  video, sound-slides, YouTube etc

Familiar with social marketing and online media distribution

Experience and enthusiasm for online distribution methods and audience building

Sense of humor

 

National Radio Project / Making Contact is an affirmative action employer. We actively recruit applications from women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and people with disabilities. 

 

Submit app ASAP. Position Open Until Filled. Please email resume, cover letter, writing sample (radio script preferred) and links to work samples to lrudman@radioproject.org

Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation, deadline Feb 15

Harvard is looking for an innovative journalist, people. Fellowship details follow. Deadline Feb 15. This is a good one! -mia

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Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation

The Nieman-Berkman Fellowship in Journalism Innovation will bring one individual to Harvard University for the 2012-13 academic year to work on a specific course of research or a specific project relating to journalism innovation.

The fellowship is a collaboration between two parts of Harvard: the Nieman Foundation for Journalism and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Both share a set of common interests around journalism, innovation, and the evolution of the digital space. And both have longstanding fellowship programs that give people a year to learn and collaborate with others in the Harvard community.

The Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be a joint fellow between the two centers — a full Nieman Fellow and a full Berkman Fellow.

The Nieman-Berkman Candidate
Candidates will be asked to propose a specific course of study or project relating to journalism innovation. That proposal could deal with any issue relating to journalism’s digital transformation. Examples might include ideas for new revenue streams to fund journalism, the construction of new tools for reporting, or research into news consumption patterns. The candidate’s application must make it clear how his or her proposal will benefit the field.

The Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be able to draw upon the wealth of resources available at Harvard and in the surrounding area for his or her work. Along with the Nieman Foundation and the Berkman Center, Cambridge is home to institutions like the Harvard Business School, MIT’s Center for Civic Media, the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, the Shorenstein Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy, and others relating to journalism’s evolution.

Our goal is to identify a candidate who would benefit from the time and resources the fellowship provides, and whose work during the year at Harvard would benefit journalism more broadly.

Day-to-day Life of the Nieman-Berkman Fellow
The primary responsibility of the fellow will be to execute the proposal that earned him or her the fellowship.

In addition, the fellow will be expected to spend the year in residence in Cambridge and to be a full participant in both the Nieman and Berkman fellowship communities.

In terms of specific time commitments, that includes attendance at Nieman and Berkman events designed for the fellows, such as the weekly Berkman Fellows’ hour on Tuesdays and the Nieman Fellows’ seminar on Wednesdays. More broadly, it means engagement with both communities and serving as part of the bridge between them. We believe journalists and technologists have important things to teach one another, and the Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be part of that information sharing.

Finally, the Nieman-Berkman Fellow will be expected to share the results of his or her work with other fellows and through the Nieman Journalism Lab.

Eligibility
The Nieman-Berkman Fellowship is open to both United States citizens and citizens of other countries.

Candidates should either be working journalists or work for a news organization in a business, technology, or leadership capacity. Independent journalists are also welcome to apply.

The Nieman Foundation and the Berkman Center share a commitment to diversity and encourage applications from members of underrepresented groups.

Learn more about the requirements and stipulations for eligibility.

Financial Terms
The Nieman-Berkman Fellow will receive the standard Nieman Fellowship stipend from the Nieman Foundation, which is $60,000 over 10 months. Fellows receive additional allowances for housing, childcare, and health insurance, which differ in size depending on their family situation.

How to Apply
You apply through the Nieman Fellowship online application process.

The deadline for applications in Feb. 15, 2012.

Note that this deadline is later than the standard deadline for Nieman Fellowships, which is Jan. 31 for United States citizens. Americans are welcome to apply for both the standard Nieman Fellowship and the special Nieman-Berkman Fellowship.

Once submitted, your application will be evaluated by a joint Berkman and Nieman review team. Interviews with finalists will be held in the spring, and, if a satisfactory candidate is found, the winner will be notified in May.

For More Information
For questions about the application process, email Nieman fellowship administrator John Breen at john_breen@harvard.edu.

For questions about the fellowship itself, email Joshua Benton (Nieman) at joshua_benton@harvard.edu or Colin Maclay (Berkman) at cmaclay@cyber.law.harvard.edu.

ProPublica News Apps Fellowship, deadline Jan 20

Hey news techies – ProPublica is looking for a paid intern/fellow to work in their NYC office. Details HERE and below. Interesting opportunity! -mia

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The ProPublica News Apps desk is looking for a smart, technically-savvy journalist to join our team for a pilot project we’re calling a News Applications Fellowship.

In this special internship, which is paid and will run until the end of the year, you’ll help us test a hypothesis: Can a smart, technical journalist with excellent and proven skills in other nerdy newsroom disciplines like graphics and CAR become a news app developer?

You’ll learn how to make news apps like our Dollars for Docs and Opportunity Gap projects, working side-by-side with our news app developers. You’ll leave here with a set of skills and experience that will make you an invaluable member of any news apps or interactive news team. If you’re already got some programming skills, we’ll round out your knowledge and teach you how we turn raw data into journalism, and if you’re an accomplished journalist, we’ll teach you how to code.

Here are the three requirements.

  1. You want to be an editorial developer. A lot. We recognize that there are a lot of jobs for news app developers, but if you’re in it just for job security, or you think coding is something that will get your foot in the door to do other stuff, this isn’t gonna work. Staying up all night trying to prop up an overloaded server, or tracking down a bad database migration, or reading somebody else’s code to figure out how it works, are things you do when you love the work, not when it’s just a job.

  2. You are an experienced graphics editor, CAR expert, web producer, or web designer. Central to our hypothesis is the idea that if you know how to take output files from SPSS and turn them into gorgeous charts in Illustrator, or you know how to take a map from ESRI and style it to look terrific, or if you know how to run a regression using R, you’re already technical enough to learn how to program a news app. Writing code for news apps can be easier than those things, once you know how. We love reporters, but the leap from story to news app is way bigger than the leap from graphic to news app, so for the time being we’re looking for candidates from disciplines other than narrative reporting.

  3. You are a trained and/or experienced journalist. If you’re a developer and are thinking about making the jump into journalism there are some great options. But the most important part of making a news app is editorial judgment, and it’s the hardest part to learn on the job.

Current students or recent grads who have academic work that shows a talent in these disciplines are encouraged to apply.

Naturally, if you already have some coding skills, especially in front-end markup like CSS and HTML, you’ve got a leg up. But we’re expecting to train the right person. We know that out there in the news universe there are whip-smart people who are starting to teach themselves how to program by reading books and building stuff they never show anybody; people who want to take their graphics talents to the next level and to start working on the back-end code as well. If that's you, hurry up and apply already.

The fellowship is based in our New York City office.

To apply, send an e-mail with your résumé and URLs to scott.klein@propublica.org. Make sure to submit a brief explanation of the exact role you played in the projects your URLs point to. Application deadline is January 20. Start date is flexible, but can be immediate.