Deadline: April 15, 2022
Applications are open for the Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellowship 2022. The Al Accountability Fellowships seek to support staff and freelance journalists working on in-depth AI accountability stories that examine governments’ and corporations’ uses of predictive and surveillance technologies to guide decisions in policing, medicine, social welfare, the criminal justice system, hiring, and more.
The eight-months-long Fellowship will provide journalists up to $20,000 to pursue their reporting project. The funds can be used to pay for records requests, travel expenses, data analysis, and stipends. In addition, the Fellows will have access to mentors and relevant training with a group of peers that will help strengthen their reporting projects.
Journalists need to apply with a reporting project they wish to pursue during their Fellowship. They encourage enterprise and accountability projects that use a variety of approaches—from data analysis, to records requests, and shoe-leather reporting—and delve into the real-world impact of algorithms on policy, individuals, and communities.
While each Fellow will work on an individual reporting project, the Fellowship involves periodic discussions and trainings with the other Fellows. One of the key benefits of the Fellowship is the possibility to access a learning community of journalists facing similar reporting challenges as they pioneer the algorithmic accountability reporting field.
Financial Support
- The Fellows are eligible to receive up to $20,000 divided in three payments. Include a detailed budget explaining your reporting expenses. You may include a stipend to pay for your time if you are a freelancer. They expect newsrooms to pay for their staff members’ salaries.
Eligibility
- Open to staff or freelance journalists working on a wide range of platforms, including print, radio, video, and multimedia.
- Team players with the experience and/or ability to work collaboratively across newsrooms and borders.
- Reporters with a deep interest in how AI impacts the world, and why this issue matters to our global well-being.
- Reporters willing to participate in outreach activities related to their investigations, such as events at schools and universities.
- Reporters can be based anywhere. The Fellowships are remote.
Application
To apply for the Fellowship, you will be asked to provide:
- A short statement of purpose: How this Fellowship fits in your career path and why you are best positioned to be an Al Accountability Fellow. (250 words)
- A detailed description of the reporting project you seek to pursue during your Fellowship. Do not propose general themes, but propose a concrete project that shows some pre-reporting on the subject. A compelling, well-researched project proposal with a reporting plan will help you stand out among dozens of applicants. (250 words)
- A budget that lays out anticipated costs of the project. Categories can include: records requests, software, data analysis, travel and lodging, and stipends.
- Three examples (links) of your best stories published in the past three years (not necessarily on AI accountability).
- A letter of commitment or interest from a media organization(s) that would publish your story(ies).
- Three professional references: These can be either contact information or letters of recommendation.
- A copy of your resume or curriculum vitae.
Proposals can be sent through an online form. Preferably they should be written in English, but they also accept submissions in Spanish.
For more information, visit Pulitzer Center.
