Application for AI Accountability Fellowships 2022 is ongoing!
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-month-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 for a reporting project they wish to pursue during their Fellowship. We 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 training 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.
We seek to support journalists and newsrooms that represent the diversity of the communities affected by AI, predictive, and surveillance technologies.
We will encourage sharing of methodologies and lessons learned so each story can serve as a blueprint for other newsrooms pursuing similar projects.
Here are a few AI accountability projects for inspiration:
- “Prying Eyes,” by Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson (Baltimore Magazine)
- “How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation,” by Karen Hao (MIT Technology Review)
- “How Healthcare Workers in India Fought a Surveillance Regime and Won,” by Varsha Bansal (Coda Story)
- “An algorithm that grants freedom or takes it away,” by Cade Metz and Adam Satariano (The New York Times)
- “OpenSchufa Project,” Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, Algorithm Watch, Der Spiegel, Bayerischer Rundfunk. (CJR wrote about this project.)
- Tracked and Traced, produced by David Leins (WDET)
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. Please 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.
If you have questions, please contact Boyoung Lim at blim@pulitzercenter.org.
We encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms that represent a broad array of social, racial, ethnic, and underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.
Application Deadline
The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2022, 11:59pm EST. Please use this form to submit your application. We encourage you to submit your application early. We will schedule interviews with finalists on a rolling basis.
If you have questions, please contact Boyoung Lim at blim@pulitzercenter.org.
Frequently Asked Questions
- 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.
- The opportunity to work on an urgent, underreported issue for a substantial period of time
- Access to mentors and specialized training opportunities
- A community of like-minded colleagues that will continue beyond your Fellowship
- Financial support to cover records requests, travel expenses, data analysis, and stipends
The Fellows are eligible to receive up to $20,000 divided in three payments. Please include a detailed budget explaining your reporting expenses. You may include a stipend to pay for your time if you are a freelancer. We expect newsrooms to pay for their staff members’ salaries.
The Fellowship is expected to start in May and last through the end of 2022.
Your proposal should demonstrate that you have done pre-research on the stories you want to pursue, including hypotheses that guide the work, data sources, and methodology. We want to see that there is an ambitious, coherent, and realistic reporting plan in place.
More important than experience reporting on AI is a track record of in-depth, nuanced, and impactful reporting on issues that affect the communities you cover. Experience in investigative, data, and/or explanatory reporting is highly valued.
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