The Online News Association, the world’s largest membership organization of digital journalists, has launched new MJ Bear Fellowships for early-career digital journalists, in honor of founding member MJ Bear.
For this inaugural year, the search committee will select three promising, up-and-coming digital journalists—two in the United States or Canada and one internationally, in partnership with MSN International—who are just beginning to make their voices heard in the industry.
Selected Fellows will be paired with a digital news leader as a mentor; receive an expense-paid trip to the Online News Association Conference & Awards Banquet (ONA11), Sept. 22-24, in Boston, where they’ll have a chance to share their fresh perspectives; and a free, one-year ONA membership.
The goal of the Fellowship, in Bear’s own words, is “to promote the voices of young professionals working in or training to work in the field of online news by presenting programs at ONA’s annual conference, or in other venues. The programs will be designed to explore and showcase innovations, developments and new ideas in the field.”
Applicants must be working journalists between the ages of 23 and 30 and fluent in English. They will be asked to describe their recent concepts, experiments or projects that move digital journalism forward or resulted in valuable lessons or outcomes, and also provide a recommendation and a personal statement.
