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The Local offers free training on migration reporting for student and early career journalists

The Local & MAX Project
The Local & MAX Project - [email protected]
The Local offers free training on migration reporting for student and early career journalists
The sessions will allow you to meet and work with other journalists across Europe, and receive mentoring from The Local's team.

Are you a journalism student or early career journalist based in the EU? Are you interested in learning more about responsible reporting on migration – and putting those skills into practice?

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Applications for the training are now closed and we are excited to have heard from so many journalists who are interested in constructive migration reporting. If you signed up, we will get in touch with you by September 10th to let you know if your application was successful. If you missed the application period but would like to be sent the training materials, we will be happy to share them -- contact [email protected]. Thanks for your interest! 

The Local's journalists will be running free training sessions for new journalists interested in migration reporting in September and October 2020, during which you will work on an article on a migration-related topic of your choice.

Who is this training for?

We want to hear from journalism students, recent journalism graduates, and journalists in the first three years of their careers. You should have an interest in reporting about migration, but you do not need to have previously published work.

Because this project is supported by EU funding, the training is only open to people who either live or work in the EU (including the UK). Register your interest by filling out the form at the bottom of this page, before August 31st 2020.

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What does the training include?

There will be four sessions of 1 hour-1.5 hours, taking place online over six weeks.

We'll introduce solutions journalism methodology (so don't worry if you've never heard of it before), explore how it can be applied to migration reporting, and walk you through how to find, report and write your story. There's no one-size-fits-all approach, so to help you put the skills into practice you'll be working on an article throughout the course.

You'll get the chance to meet and work with other journalists across Europe working on similar topics, receive training from The Local's journalists, and have the chance of extra mentoring and feedback on your work between the sessions. The training is free.

Earlier this year, we hosted a similar course for journalists already experienced in solutions or migration reporting. You can read more about what we covered, and what they said, here.

When will the training happen?

The training will take place entirely online due to the coronavirus crisis, using Zoom. There will be four sessions: September 22nd (2pm-3.30pm), September 29th (2pm-3.30pm), October 13th (2pm-3pm), and October 27th (2pm-3pm).

What's expected of me?

Please register your interest before August 31st 2020. We ask that you do your best to attend each session as you'll get the most out of the course through the group work. 

As part of the training, you'll write an article on a subject of your choosing, which you'll work on in the third and fourth sessions and in your own time in between. The article must be written in English, but our journalists will offer help with editing. 

Your finished article may be published on The Local and/or the website of the MAX project which funds this training; we cannot offer payment, but you will retain copyright to your article if you wish to pitch it elsewhere – which we encourage you to do! Part of the training will include advice on pitching this type of story, and we'll share resources with all participants.

Participation in the training is free. 

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I don't meet the criteria, can I still get involved?

Yes! We will make some of the training materials publicly available at the end of the project. If you're not a student or early career journalist, not based in the EU, or if you can't commit to the sessions, you can contact us and we will add you to our mailing list to be notified when this happens. 

What's The Local, and what is MAX?

The Local is an English-language news network currently operating in nine countries across Europe. We've been covering Europe's news in English for 15 years, and we write for Europe's foreign-born residents.

We know migration can be good, bad and everything in between, and that too often it's the 'everything in between' that gets left out of media coverage. Our journalists have developed this curriculum, using Solutions Journalism methodology, as a way of tackling that.

MAX is an EU-wide project funded by the EU's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, and the training is funded by this project. The aim of MAX is to expand the public narrative around immigration in Europe and highlight stories of real people who have migrated and the communities they have joined. This training from The Local is one part of the project, which also includes research and events. Please note that the EU and project partners have no say in which stories you choose to write about or how. 

 

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Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
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