For journalists who report in English and Malayalam

Who can apply:

Journalists who meet the following two criteria:

1. Independent journalists not engaged on a full-time basis with any media organisation.

2. Journalists who are Indian citizens and residing in India outside the six metropolitan cities of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

The following fall into our working definition of ‘independent journalists’:

You are either

Who is an Independent Journalist:

A “working journalist”, whose primary vocation and source of livelihood is journalism. But you are not employed on a full-time basis with benefits of a salaried employee by any organisation.
Or,
You are a pass-out from a journalism college and not employed full-time by either a media organisation or any other kind of organisation.

What Kind of stories can you Pitch for Grant:

• In the current round, we invite applications for stories to be published in print and digital formats in English (25 fellowships) and Malayalam (10 fellowships).

• The story is reported deeply, evidence-based and well-investigated. The story could be a news-break, a news analysis or a news feature. It could be specific to the region or geography you report.

• We want to support stories that do not stop at merely reporting an incident or an event but draw these out in the context of larger trends in governance, society and the political economy.

• We discourage essays and analysis that does not contain deep reporting.

• The story could be on one of these themes or on the intersection of these themes. This is an indicative list and not an exhaustive one.

1. How are local, district, state or central governments responding (or, not responding) to the second wave of covid-19.

2. Specific stories of how people, communities, civil society and/or businesses responding to the second wave of covid-19. The public health challenge in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic.

3. Particular conflicts over common property resources, resource-capture and corruption. Contests and conflicts over natural resources.

4. Cases, episodes or developments impacting the environment.

5. Misgovernance. Or, good governance.

6. Livelihoods and rights of people.

7. Functioning of essential services and social security schemes.

8. Workings of businesses and economy that impact society, rights and resources.

9. Social cooperation and innovation in the face of new challenges.

10. Civil and fundamental rights of citizens.

11. Evidence-based trends in how our societies are changing.

Time Duration for Story:

You are expected to complete and submit the story within one month (30 days) from the receipt of the grant.

Note:

The expected story length is 1,000-1,500 words.

We encourage fellows to also record videos and audio and click photographs. These are used while publishing stories and while reproducing the stories in other multimedia formats.

Before you send your Pitch to us make sure:

1. Make sure you pitch us more than a raw idea.

2. Do some background work, preliminary reporting and research on story idea to draw it out better.

3. Make sure that the story has not been reported before. Or that it analyses and reports on a known episode, event or process in light of new facts and understanding.

4. Make sure you are confident of accessing evidence to back up and corroborate your assertions in the story.
 

How to apply:

All the details in application form for both, fellowships in English and Malayalam must be filled only in English.

(We apologise but we are unable to accept applications in Malayalam due to resource availability).

To apply in the current round, you should have the following ready:

1. 1. For fellowships in English: your story idea written in English in less than 400 words. For fellowships in Malayalam: your story idea written in Malayalam in less than 400 words.

2. Your CV in English in a word or pdf format.

3. One unedited version of your best published work or an unpublished journalistic work of not less than 400 words in MS Word or PDF format. (Those applying for Malayalam Fellowships need to attach their unedited work in Malayalam)

To strengthen your pitch, please consider the following elements in your proposal:

1. The most recent development, event, incident or an emerging trend you want to report on.

2. Explain the context in which the development has happened or is happening (Editors find it easy to review the pitch when it is presented with the right context).

3. Summarise why this development matters, which is to say, why should anyone who consumes this news or analysis care about this development.

4. Give us a sense of what evidence, data or reporting you are already armed with and what else you would gather if you are granted the fellowship.

Fill:

https://www.nfi.org.in/node/222