Thomson Foundations’ Elizabeth R Media Fund: Commonwealth Digital Challenge 2017

The Elizabeth R Media Fund is launching a new competition aimed at providing young and aspiring media managers from the Commonwealth with the skills and tools necessary to help their organisations face the digital challenges in their countries.

The event will also act as a spur to the competitors to discuss the needs of a free and competitive media across the Commonwealth.

Eligibility Requirements:

• Applicants must be citizens of a Commonwealth member country, excluding the UK.
• The competition is open to journalists and media managers working for a media organisation in the public or private sectors.
• Entrants must be journalists or media managers, aged between 28 and 35, on April 1st, 2018.
• The competition organisers may request documentation to verify an entrant’s age and employment status.

Benefits:

The overall winner will be invited to spend a week’s intensive study of UK media organisations in London, with all expenses paid, during the week of the Commonwealth Summit in London in April, 2018.
It will be followed by 12 months’ mentoring by industry professionals overseen by the Thomson Foundation – the world’s longest-established media development organisation.

COMPETITION RULES

• Entrants will be asked to submit a 400-word statement, in English, outlining a particular challenge posed to their organisation, or media sector, in their country together with a potential business case for how it could be addressed.
• Twenty applicants will be invited to take three on-line modules in digital skills and newsroom management from the Thomson Foundation’s online “Journalism Now” programme.
• The most successful of the 20, in the opinion of the judges, will be invited to spend a week’s intensive study of UK media organisations in London, during Commonwealth Week 2018, followed by online mentoring by Thomson Foundation consultants for 12 months.
• The winner will lead a virtual conference of the top 20 applicants and UK media mentors focusing on how the media can react to the challenges thrown up by the topic of Commonwealth Week.

Application Deadline: 3rd November, 2017.

For more information click here.