Our Watch Fellowships
Terms and Conditions
- All applicants must be Australian citizens or residents working for Australian news outlets.
- All applicants must certify that any work provided in their application, apart from normal sub editorial/production treatment, is their original work and that they have adhered to the MEAA Code of Ethics in the work preparation, undertake to continue to abide by the Code of Ethics and have complied with all copyright requirements.
- All entries must declare any legal complaints, defamation actions, contempt of court actions, suppression orders, challenges to the accuracy, corrections or claims of plagiarism, relevant to the work at the time of entry.
- Successful applicants must be able to participate in all of the the fellowship retreats scheduled for Friday February 8—Sunday February 10, 2019, Thursday March 28—Friday March 29, 2019 and Friday June 7, 2019.
- Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for those needing to travel interstate for the fellowship program.
- Successful applicants must demonstrate a willingness to organise and promote Our Watch visiting their newsroom to deliver a 2-hour training session with their colleagues so their learnings can be shared with others in the newsroom.
- Judges have the right to reject an application which in their opinion does not comply with the requirements of the competition. The judges’ decision will be final.
- To facilitate easy access for judging,applicants should place URLs outside any pay wall. If that proves infeasible, the entry should provide a username and password for judges, plainly indicated in the supporting statement.
Judging process
- Applications for the Our Watch Fellowship Program will be open from Monday October 15, 2018 and close at midnight on Thursday November 15, 2018.
- Applications will be considered by a selection panel comprised of senior journalists, industry members and Our Watch staff/board.
- Successful fellowship applicants will be announced on Thursday December 6, 2018.
- Successful applicants will be notified prior to the public announcement and be required to sign an MOU that confirms that they can take part in all three fellowship retreats.
Selection criteria
- Applicants must be a citizen or permanent resident of Australia.
- Applicants must be at least mid-career level with a minimum of 5 years working in the industry.
- Applicants must show a commitment to advancing ethical, evidence-based and sensitive journalism by providing four examples of their work that serves as Public Service Journalism. Public Service Journalism is defined as:
Journalism that aims to make a difference, with tangible public benefit to the community. This could include: Good civic journalism which gives a voice to the voiceless in our community; Journalism which starts a public debate on an important issue; Journalism which exposes incompetence or wrongdoing by those who should be working for the common good, especially in government or any institutions affecting the public; Journalism which points to solutions to important issues within the community or society which it serves.
- Demonstrate an understanding of current issues and problems with reporting on violence against women and children within the news media and what they would like to see changed.
- Demonstrated commitment to advancing ethical, evidence-based and sensitive journalism.
- Applicants must demonstrate their capacity to apply cultural leadership in newsroom. This does not mean you have to have a managerial role or a formal leadership position – it is about demonstrating your capacity to inspire, positively influence or capture the imagination of those around you.
- Applicants must articulate why they want to do this Fellowship, what they hope to learn from it, what they hope to do with it and what they think news media’s role is regarding the issue of violence against women
- The applicant must be available to attend all three retreats. This includes permission from their manager to take time out of the newsroom for professional development.
Have questions? Please email gemma.courtney@walkleys.com