Fellowship Applications Open: Tell Us Your Story!
Do you have a creative, original story about the ASEAN Community and ASEAN that must be told? IPS Asia-Pacific and Probe Media Foundation Inc (PMFI) are inviting journalists, photojournalists and television journalists to apply for the fellowship reporting program called ‘Reporting ASEAN: 2015 and Beyond’.
The phrase ‘ASEAN Community’ is on many people’s lips and mentioned often in news reports these days, but how much do we really know about the onset of the Community by 2015? What will this mean for our communities, countries, livelihoods and everyday lives?
The ‘Reporting ASEAN: 2015 and Beyond’ program provides a venue for in-depth, critical and original reportage looking into the ‘ASEAN Community’ and ASEAN regionalization, its implications and impact on the lives of the constituency of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN). Better reportage on this regional initiative would enable media and journalists to better explain and investigate ASEAN’s role and that of the ASEAN Community in their societies and countries’ development.
‘Reporting ASEAN: 2015 and Beyond’ is open to professional journalists who are nationals of the 10 ASEAN member countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The program is being implemented by IPS Asia-Pacific (www.ipsnewsasia.net), and PMFI (www.probefound.com), two Asia-based organizations working on media and capacity building of journalists. Core financial support for the ‘Reporting ASEAN’ is provided by the Rockefeller Foundation (www.rockefellerfoundation.org).
To apply, a journalist must:
-be a professional print/online or television journalist, or photojournalist from an ASEAN member country
-have worked in the media for at least three years
-submit application and story proposal forms
Fellowship applications must focus on the exploration of a news issue related to the ASEAN Community and ASEAN regionalization – including urban resilience and urbanization; vulnerability and resilience to climate change; access to energy; the Community’s impact on formal and informal labour; healthy systems and population mobility and migration in the region; economic linkages; issues around the formation of an ASEAN identity; public perceptions of the ASEAN Community.
Story proposals will be screened using these core elements: originality; creativity; relevance to the overall development of ASEAN societies; the presence of a strong regional angle that goes beyond national reporting lenses; a deep understanding of ASEAN and the ASEAN Community; organization of planning and execution of in-depth journalistic investigation; and inclusion of a variety of sources (not just state voices) such as different stakeholders and marginalized groups.
Selected fellows will be given subgrants to carry out coverage of their approved topics.
They will also get scholarships to attend ‘Reporting ASEAN: A Media Forum’, a congress that will be held in Bangkok on Feb. 26-28, 2015 to discuss news, media and communication-related issues around the ASEAN Community. A basic knowledge of English is needed for participation in this congress.
Phases of the program
-Screening and selection of applications
-Interviews, in-depth research, travel and investigation of the fellows’ approved topics
-Writing and production, undertaken over three months
What are the outputs?
Print/Photojournalism Fellows. Writers are to produce a package of stories, totalling at least 2,500 words, to be published in their respective media outlets. Photographers are to produce photo essays composed of 15 quality pictures selected from the shots they take, with an accompanying narrative of up to 900 words.
TV Fellows. TV journalists are to produce a video story (minimum of 3, maximum of 15 minutes) to be aired on their stations. A video story may be in the form of a documentary or news feature. It may be submitted in a local language, but must be subtitled in English.
Submissions checklist
Applicants must fill up an online application form and submit the following e-copies or files to: reportingasean@gmail.com
-Application and Story Proposal Form for ‘Reporting ASEAN: 2015 and Beyond’
-For print journalists, clippings of three published and bylined articles
-For photojournalists, clippings showing a portfolio of eight published photographs
-For TV journalists, copies of two aired TV segments they produced (written, directed, shot or edited) and links to You Tube or Vimeo, etc.
For information, please write to reportingasean@gmail.com or download an information sheet.
A PDF version of the application form is also available here.
