In the final week before the inaugural Masters & McKenzie Investigative Journalism Fellowship closes applications on 12 May, we spoke to Pamela Williams, chair of the Walkley Public Fund Committee, about why this opportunity was created and what she hopes it will achieve.
What makes this fellowship special?
I think what makes this fellowship special is the access of being in the room with some very significant investigative journalists who have long and legendary careers in this country. A small, lucky group of winners will be able to share a room for a couple of days listening to these journalists talk about how they do what they do. To hear how some of our finest journalists have unpicked the data, details, information and sources they have steadily, layer-by-layer, turned into some of the most remarkable stories of our recent history. These are household names.
And they’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions and talk about their own projects…
The winners of this fellowship will bring their own story ideas or stories they’ve worked on in the past. They’ll have the option to have a two-way conversation in a small group about their own work. They will be able to get advice from really experienced journalists on how they might proceed. They will hopefully leave these sessions with a whole new master file of their own for what to do and how to keep moving when you hit road bumps, how to think laterally around the story.
You had an experience at Columbia University that partly informed the approach to this fellowship. Can you tell us about that?
Many years ago I won a Citi journalism award. An award given out by Citigroup, they give awards around the world. The winner goes to New York and there is a study tour hosted by Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York. It was an unbelievable privilege. They run a course at Columbia with the many winners from around the world who all entered in their own countries. That had such an impact on me. But I did notice that in the very large groups, the more confident amongst us possibly gained the most. Because they were the ones who asked more questions of these unbelievable lecturers.
By making our Masters & McKenzie Fellowship a smaller group, we hope we’ll be able to offer a career highlight, a career-changing experience. With smaller numbers in the room, and expert journalists to guide them, we think there’ll be ample opportunity for you, if you’re selected, to have first hand discussion with legendary journalists whose work has brought about change in our systems. It’s an exceptional chance to have time with journalists like Hedley Thomas, Kate McClymont, Adele Ferguson, Michael Bachelard, Chris Masters, Nick McKenzie and others, really exceptional journalists. Who will be able to unpack what they did and help you unpick what you might do yourself in your own journalism.
Top row, from left: Chris Masters, Nick McKenzie, Pamela Williams, Michael Bachelard. Bottom row, from left: Adele Ferguson, Kate McClymont, Hedley Thomas, Larina Alick.
I think it’s going to be an incredible experience to win this fellowship. There’s no doubt people will come away with a new network of the other participants who’ve won the fellowship. And they will also have spent significant amounts of time with those senior journalists who are going to be guiding them through.
As a judge, what are you hoping to see in applications?
We are looking for self-starters. Confident journalists. Journalists who’ve got a sticky mind, insofar as having an approach that wants to always look behind things, to go the extra step. We’re looking for people who might have done some work already where we can see and assess as journalists ourselves that they’ve really gone the extra mile. That they’ve overturned obstacles, continued on in a difficult line of enquiry, to uncover a story in whatever area it is they work. Initiative, ingenuity, some confidence, some courage. And a sense of ability to judge what is a good story and then just chase it. That’s sometimes innate, and it’s sometimes learned. A lot of the time it’s learned by watching how others do it. And we are hoping that we will be able to select some very talented mid career journalists to win this fellowship and we’ll be able to offer something that will help them as a career boost going forward.
What would you say to something thinking about applying?
If you’re reading about this fellowship and it’s interesting to you, when you look at the list of people you’ll have access to, you should be entering.
I’d apply for it just to be in the room and listen to Hedley talk! Imagine hearing about how he deduced, how to go forward, crack on and then turn it into an investigative podcast, how the hell do you do that? And how do you crack on til you’ve got cops digging up backyards and helicopters over the top and you’re still podcasting it, you’re still breaking the story. Wouldn’t you just give anything if you’re a journalist to be in the room, and then to get to talk to him about your own story idea?
These are generous journalists, these speakers and presenters. They will leave no stone unturned to help these fellows. It’s a really special opportunity to be face-to-face with some of the biggest names in our industry and have them focus on you.
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Find out more about the Fellowship: https://www.walkleys.com/professional-development/masters-mckenzie-investigative-journalism-fellowship/
Applications close at 11.59pm on Monday, 12 May, 2025. Start your application online here: https://safp.scholarshipsplatform.com/
The Masters & McKenzie Investigative Journalism Fellowship is supported by Walkley Public Fund and proudly supported by the Dennoch Fund, a sub-fund of the Australian Communities Foundation.
