Call for applications open for the inaugural AU Media Fellowship
AU Media Fellowship for African Journalists 2022
Be an AU Media Fellow
Are you an African journalist, blogger, vlogger, content creator, or podcaster living and working in Africa or the diaspora? Are you passionate about promoting development-focused stories using emerging technologies, and through visual, written, oral and digital media? Apply for the inaugural African Union Media Fellowship.
Background
As information gatekeepers, the media plays a role in ensuring checks and balances between those in power and their citizens.. They are essential in shaping how we learn, experience and perceive the world around us through stories, images, words, and motion pictures to ensure a fuller picture of our world.
Empowering the newsroom, empowers citizens.
As Africa moves into the 4th industrial revolution, with emerging technologies, African storytellers are now challenged to think of how to deploy new media technologies for citizen engagement to address the changing communications landscape. To ensure Africa remains in the race with the rest of the world, and benefit from digital transformation, the African Union (AU) Information and Communication Directorate has joined forces with the Citizens Engagement and Innovative Data Use for Africa’s Development programme implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)to create the AU Media Fellowship. The Fellowship brings together innovation and creativity to present under-reported stories that break-down stereotypes and create new narratives for the Africa We Want.
The Fellowship is designed to provide a platform for African journalists and content creators to enhance their capacity to reframe the African narrative and to ensure that stories about the continent are balanced and true to the experiences of its people.
The AU Agenda 2063 strategic pillars recognize that media, communication and ICT sectors must be seen as holistic and inclusive, ensuring access for all members of society to technology and the knowledge economy. This is also in line with the AU Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2030.
The objectives of the AU Media Fellowship is to:Train and build the capacity of journalists and/or content creators, to leverage creativity and innovation within the continent;
Build capacity around innovative and transformative tools in journalism and media; and
Create a platform for journalists to network and share best practices on the future of journalism
The Fellowship programme will kick-off with a study tour and capacity building workshops. The 20 selected fellows will benefit from direct access to various African Union leadership, and have the opportunity for on-the-ground reporting on the AU’s work around the Agenda 2063 strategic aspirations.
Fellowship Programme: The Fellowship is 12 months in duration and will begin in June 2022 with an international study trip to Germany to the “Global Media Forum”.
The Fellows confirm with their application that they are available for an international study trip to Germany between June 15 – July 1 2022.
Applicants must be able to devote time to the project if awarded a Fellowship.
Fellows must be available for all training sessions indicated and must be able to work on assignments in between training blocks.
The Fellows confirm availability for a 1-week training block in December 2022
The Fellows confirm availability for a 1-week training block in April 2023.
June 2022 in-person training
Fellows meet in Germany, for a 2 week-long intensive media and advocacy camp.
June – September – Online Trainings and Networking
Fellows complete remote work with a mentor. Fellows and mentors focus on the Fellow’s outputs goals, and working towards tangible advocacy and policy objectives.
October 2022
Fellows meet in-person or virtually for an intensive training and to present the results of the work period June – September.
October – December 2022
Remote work continues as Fellows receive support to write, pitch, and publish, complete media appearances, advocate for their work and broader policy change, and share their stories with targeted audiences.
December 2022
Fellows meet in Addis Abeba to be introduced to the AU and to present the outcomes of the trainings.
January 2023 – April 2023
Fellows receive continued support from their mentor until the next class is announced.
April 2023 – Final Event and Certificates of Recognition
A closing event in Addis Abeba will formally close the fellowship. Fellows graduate to become Senior Fellows and become mentors for the next cohort of AU Media Fellows.
Application Process
Call for applications deadline 30 April, 2022.
Email here: Agenda2063@africa-union.org and aumediafellowship@gmail.com
Applications are shortlisted in house then put to a jury panel who selects the winning applications. The Fellows are announced in May 2022
What Do Fellows Receive?International Study Trips and exposure
Certified workshops and webinars with renowned international partners such as Deutsche Welle, BBC Media Action, Hass-Plattner-Institute, the AU, and international media houses
Access to AU leadership and policy makers and network with other Fellows
Support from Senior Mentors and Institutions
Fellows awarded grants to enable them to produce detailed stories
Who Are We Looking For?
The AU Media Fellows are experienced journalists or communication experts ready to take the next leap in their career reporting from and for Africa. We seek journalists with a strong track record of publications who offer new perspectives on African debates. Fellowships are open to journalists in any medium. Fellows with a proven focus on innovation are strongly encouraged to apply.
The AU Media Fellowship is for you if you want to work on the following:Disrupt and challenge harmful and stereotypical narratives and shaping new narratives about and within the continent.
Using innovative tools and analysis to highlight transformations taking place within the continent.
Our Aspirations for the Africa We Want | African Union
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