Young Climate Media Fellowship

Media representations of climate change and energy issues are areas of burgeoning interest. The need for responsible and effective climate reporting is even more crucial and significant, keeping in mind that people are now keen to know, decode and relate to the changing climate. With a vision to enhance outreach and propagate successful climate stories through the lens of media, WWF-India proposes to initiate a Young Climate Media Fellowship Programme.
 
The fellowship aims to encourage young media professionals in the climate and energy sector, who by the end of the program, are expected to create and report forward-looking and solution-oriented climate and energy stories.

Who can apply?

a) Candidates having an interest and willingness to work in the climate and energy beat and contribute to the public discourse on the subject;
and
b) Candidates with 2-3 years experience as:
  • Media professionals in a reputed media house
  • Media and journalism graduates and/or freelance journalists
  • Journalists working for online news  and media
Previous experience in reporting environment, conservation, climate change and energy and related themes/topics will be an advantage. However, in exceptional cases, well qualified fresh media/journalism graduates may also be considered

Deliverables

  • Once selected, the fellows will have to attend an orientation/briefing at WWF-India Secretariat office to understand and familiarize themselves with the requirements of this fellowship.
  • The selected fellows will be required to travel to the field sites of WWF-India or other relevant sites in the country that have significant climate stories. The stories may or may not be limited to WWF-India interventions, but must contribute to the larger vision of WWF-India, of promoting climate innovations, enhancing clean energy access, reducing GHG emissions, and generating awareness on climate and energy themes.
  • The selected candidates will be expected to publish either of the following-reports, feature stories, photo stories or analytical write-ups on climate and energy issues in India, in their official capacity on the completion of the fellowship.
  • After the field/site visits, the candidates are expected to share a draft version of their stories with WWF-India
  • The fellows must acknowledge the support of WWF-India - Young Climate Media Fellowship when they publish or present the articles or reports they produce under the fellowship elsewhere.
  • Post the fellowship, the articles/reports become the joint property of WWF and the fellow, and WWF reserves the right to reproduce the materials developed under the fellowship programme giving due acknowledgement to the fellow and the media house.

Interested applicants are requested to submit the following

  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Statement of purpose
  • Letter of recommendation/interest from the media house to publish the story
  • Writing samples including published work, if any
  • Professional achievements, in case of young professionals/freelancers, and academic accomplishments for graduates

The following professionals have been selected for WWF-India's Young Climate Media Fellowship:
 

  Name Media House
1.  Aesha Datta Hindu Business Line
2.  Ankita Sengupta Hindustan Times
3.  Kushagra Dixit IANS
4.  Shreya Jai Business Standard
5.  Twesh Mishra Hindu Business Line
6.  Umamaheswara Rao Jinnala Deccan Chronicle
7.  Ankush Tripathi Nav Bharat Times
8.  Pattabi Raman The New Indian Express

Fellowship Stipend & Duration

Total lump-sum amount is INR 50,000. This is inclusive of the travel, accommodation, site visit and other miscellaneous costs.

The fellowship will be for a period of two months, which will include identifying the theme and location, travelling to the site and reporting the story.