New Media Writing Prize 2018 – International Award for Innovative Writers

Deadline: November 30 and December 14, 2018

The 2018 New Media Writing Prize is now open for entries. The New Media Writing Prize (NMWP) showcases exciting and inventive stories that integrate a variety of formats, platforms, and digital media. This international prize is now in its 9th year. The prize encourages and promotes the best in new media writing and is leading the way toward the future of the ‘written’ word and storytelling.

The NMWP has attracted entries from the very best and most innovative writers in the field. For the 2018 competition there will be four prizes: The if:book UK New Media Writing Award, the Unicorn Student Award, the Dot Award, and the Cision Journalism Award.

Prizes

• Unicorn Student Award: a paid work-placement of 3 months at Unicorn Training, Bournemouth, UK, or £500 in cash if the winner is unable to take up the internship.
• if:book UK New Media Writing Prize: £1000 donated by if:book UK, where the winner may also be a student
• The Journalism Award: £750 for the winner.
• The Dot Award: £500 and development support, offered by if:book UK.

Eligibility

• Whether you’re a student, a professional, an artist, a writer, a developer, a designer or an enthusiast, the competition is open to all.
• It’s also an international competition, open to all outside the UK.
• All entries in all categories must be in English.

Category Requirements

For the if:book Prize and Unicorn Student Prize:

• They are looking for good storytelling (fiction or non-fiction) written specifically for delivery and reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, the web, or a hand-held device such as an iPad or mobile phone. It could be a short story, novel, poem, documentary or transmedia work using words, images, film or animation with audience interaction. Interactivity is a key element of new-media storytelling.
• They  are looking for creativity, so try to be imaginative to create an engaging story i.e. combining any number of media elements, such as words on a screen combined with images and video clips. New media writing can be created using a variety of tools i.e. a word processor, DV camera, social networking tools (i.e. Twitter), mobile phone/s, a scanner, Augmented Reality software – anything goes!

The judges will be looking for the following:

1. Innovative use of new (digital) media/transmedia to create an engaging, satisfying narrative, or poem, or as-yet-unspecified form. Fiction or non-fiction.
2. Ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer.
3. Effective use of interactive elements.
4. A great example of how new media can do things traditional media can’t.
5. The potential to reach out to a wide audience (i.e. not just specialist interest groups

For the Dot Award:

• The prize will be awarded for a project idea which, in the judges’ opinion, shows promise and practicability.
• They are looking for projects which aren’t necessarily technically complex but do create original and exciting literary work inspired by the affordances of the web, blogs, apps, social media etc. Chris Meade and if:book UK will liaise with the winner to support the project, which will be showcased at the 2017 New Media Writing Prize award ceremony (17th January 2018).

For the Gorkana Journalism Awards:

• The Awards honour innovative stories based on factual material and featuring digital media.
• Interactive documentaries, multimedia features and serious games are all considered.
• Entries must incorporate new media technologies and platforms

Criteria for the Gorkana Awards:

1. innovative use of new media to create an engaging, satisfying fact-based narrative.
2. does not need to be topical, but must be socially relevant.
3. must adhere to journalistic standards of accuracy and fairness.
4. ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer.
5. effective use of interactive elements.
6. an example of how new media can do things that traditional media cannot do.
7. the potential to reach out to a wide audience, i.e. not just specialist interest groups​

Application

Deadline:

Friday November 30th 2018 12 noon GMT or if a Student entry, by Friday December 14th 2018 12 noon GMT – Late entries will not be considered.

Click here to apply.

For more information, visit New Media Writing Prize.