Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants Now Open

• Eligibility:
  – Media outlets based in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia.
  – The call for applications is open to 10 participants in the first year and 10 participants in the second year (one media outlet per country per training cycle).
• Type of funding: Programmatic, Training
• Target countries: Eastern Europe, Balkans
• Application Language: English

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) is inviting media outlets interested in connecting with their audiences and reporting on original stories that will make an impact to apply for Audience-Engaged Journalism Grants.

Individual grants will be awarded to selected media outlets that wish to cover national/regional/local topics on their own. Collaborative grants will be awarded to selected media outlets that want to investigate cross-border issues with a media partner.

• Activities and project support
  The selected grantees will undergo a four-day training programme that will be offered online and on-the-job mentoring by BIRN editors on how to use and implement innovative, effective audience-engagement tools for investigative community-based reporting.
• The participating media will receive training in the use of the B-Engaged tool, developed by BIRN, an online tool that enables direct engagement of many citizens interested in sharing information and evidence related to issues they are facing.
• Through training and mentoring, media outlets will also learn: how to select engaging topics; what is important to the audience; how to develop a callout; how to analyse crowdsourced data; how to incorporate data in the stories; and how to shape a story according to engagement journalism standards.
• Collaborative grants of €5,000 will be awarded to selected media outlets that want to investigate cross-border topics with a partner.

See here to learn more and to apply.

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