UPI Offers Student Reporting Grant

Deadline: 26 September 2011
Open to: Broadcast students, photojournalists, radio reporters, online text writers – everyone who is studying journalism is encouraged to apply.
Grant: The strongest idea will be awarded US$1,000.

United Press International is offering journalism students a grant to complete a reporting project through the UPIU.com site, a social media platform for student journalists. Good journalism costs money. The professional journalists who make up UPIU’s mentoring team know that all too well.That’s why they want to give j-students a financial kick-start to pursue a big story. Broadcast students, photojournalists, radio reports, online text writers – everyone who is studying journalism is encouraged to apply. The story pitch that plans to provide UPI.com readers with the fullest understanding of the issue – from text to photos to graphics to video – will be given major preference.

 

Description

If you (alone or with a team) pitch the strongest story idea, you’ll get $1,000 to pay for travel, data analysis software, freedom of information requests – anything you need to report and produce your story. You can even set aside some of the money to pay for your own time. Once the story is accepted by UPI.com editors, we’ll send another $500 your way as payment for work well done. The story pitch that plans to provide UPI.com readers with the fullest understanding of the issue – from text to photos to graphics to video – will be given major preference. They are looking for uncovered and under-covered stories. That means that if your story topic already gets major play in big news publications, they probably won’t give you the grant. Find a unique story that hasn’t been covered, or hasn’t been covered well.

 

Eligibility

Broadcast students, photojournalists, radio reports, online text writers – everyone who is studying journalism.

 

Conditions

• Write up your story idea. The story must include a news hook, story theme, source list, reporting plan, and a budget with details of how you’ll spend the cash.
• Choose a UPI.com section where you feel your story would best fit. That means you should go to the site and tinker around until you get a feel for what goes where. Be sure to state in your story pitch the section you recommend, and why.
• Get your journalism professor’s buy-in. Have one of your journalism professors’ vet your idea, and your plan, before you submit it. They will need their official sign-off on your idea. (Professors, they won’t ask you to do anything more – we just want to be sure student ideas have local support. If you want to act as a mentor if your student wins, please do! But you’re not required to do so.)
• Pitch your idea! All pitches will be handled through the contest page on UPI.com.
• Once they approve your idea, they’ll give you half of the grant money. You’ll get the other half once you turn in your story outline. When your story is published on UPI.com, we’ll send you the final $500.

They are looking for uncovered and under-covered stories. You’ve got three paragraphs to sell us on your story idea, your own reporting abilities, and why this story will be important for UPI.com readers. Pitches longer than three paragraphs will not be considered for the program. Pitches that are three paragraphs of exhaustive length will not be considered for the program. Keep in mind that they are looking for journalists who can tell a story succinctly. Before you pitch, do an early interview or two, or some in-depth research about your topic, to ensure your topic is narrow, and achievable. Be sure to specify in your pitch who you’ll interview, and where and how you will find your sources. Include a brief budget for your story. Make sure we’ll understand why you need this money to produce it. If you’re working as a team (and we encourage you to do so,) tell us how each student will benefit from the grant.

 

How to apply

You can apply online.
The Official Website