Applications for local newsrooms in New England to participate in the Climate Ready Newsroom fellowship are now open! Click here to apply.
At first glance, taking on new responsibilities may seem like another burden for your newsroom. However, this fellowship is designed to spur newsroom-wide system changes that make the jobs of editors and reporters easier in the long run. At the beginning of the fellowship, each newsroom will develop goals for a project aimed at advancing their “climate readiness.” Past projects have included building a “rolodex” of climate scientists in the community, developing a newsroom-wide protocol document for climate disaster coverage, soliciting climate questions from readers to inform future reporting, and launching pop-up newsrooms to more deeply engage the community. The fellowship includes six virtual training sessions on topics such as scientific uncertainty, climate attribution science, community engagement, and translating academic research. Following the training, each newsroom will receive three months of coaching from Metcalf’s journalism experts to help set, work toward, and achieve these goals. This comprehensive support allows newsrooms to step back from the daily grind, take in training at their pace, and strategically strengthen their climate coverage over time.
With more than 25 years of experience in training journalists to communicate science with accuracy and accountability, Metcalf Institute has developed this fellowship to help newsrooms increase their capacity for science supported, community-focused climate and environment reporting. The fellowship is specifically tailored to the needs of local newsrooms, rather than individual journalists, ensuring that the entire newsroom benefits from the training and resources provided.
Fellowship Benefits:
- Interactive Training: Workshops led by University of Rhode Island faculty and regional experts, focused on translating complex climate and environment science into compelling news stories relevant to local communities.
- $1000 Stipend: Each participating newsroom will receive a stipend to support a named fellow who will help embed the training within the newsroom.
- Coaching: Three months of coaching from Metcalf Institute’s journalism experts, offering guidance on long-term strategies for sustaining accurate and accountable local climate and environment coverage.
- In-Person Visit: One of the coaching sessions will be an in-person visit, offering the opportunity to dive deeper into a specific topic of interest, socialize your newsroom’s goals across more of your team, or facilitate meaningful discussions.