Each year, we select a group of developers, designers, civic hackers, and data crunchers to spend 10 months working as Knight-Mozilla Fellows embedded in our partner newsrooms. Fellows bring technical skills and a passion for tackling tough, important problems to the tight deadlines and abundant datasets of journalism.
Fellowships are paid positions, and emphasize open-source development that strengthens specific newsrooms and the larger journalism-code community.Applications for the 2016 Fellowships are open now, and the deadline to apply is August 21 at midnight EDT.
THE 2016 FELLOWSHIPS
We’re looking for seven fellows to work with news organizations around the world. Fellows spend 10 months working with newsroom colleagues, experimenting on collaborative projects, and sharing their work. Our fellowship hosts for 2016 are: the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, NPR, Vox Media, Frontline, Correct!v, and The Coral Project (a collaboration between the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Mozilla). Apply now to become a 2016 Knight-Mozilla Fellow.
THE 2015 FELLOWSHIPS
Our current cohort of fellows are working with: the Guardian, La Nacion, NPR, Vox Media, the Center for Investigative Reporting, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Meet our 2015 fellows.
THE FELLOWSHIP EXPERIENCE
Knight-Mozilla Fellows work in some of the best newsrooms in the world: they’re present as news breaks, write code for the day’s headlines, wrangle thorny datasets, and get to take a step back to build better newsroom tools and practices. As a fellow, you would live and work for 10 months in the city where your host newsroom is located (relocation is supplemented as part of the fellowship) and work as a member of the newsroom team.
The kinds of projects fellows work on day-to-day are dictated by the news organization and the fellow, and include projects focused on data, mapping, research, and impact analysis. If you already have ideas of things that interest you, whether it be news games or civic data crunching, that’s great. We’re looking for people who want to experiment with technology in journalism, and fellows get plentiful room to figure out what those experiments should be.
WHY NEWSROOMS?
Our fellows' work is rooted in developing open projects that help us all better understand our world via journalism. But embedding fellows in newsrooms does more than contribute to journalism.
News is at the center of many people’s web use, and the technology decisions news organizations are currently making will shape the way we experience the entire web for years to come. As advocates of the open web, we are especially invested in making open technology options a realistic and attractive option for newsrooms, technically and culturally.
WORKING IN THE OPEN
Knight-Mozilla Fellows share their work beyond their host newsrooms. By blogging their experiences, pushing code to open repositories, and taking part in other OpenNews initiatives, our fellows help strengthen the entire journalism-developer community and contribute to a more transparent, secure, and accessible internet.
The Knight-Mozilla Fellowships present a unique opportunity for people who love to code and who want to influence the future of journalism on the web. Apply today.
FELLOWSHIP TIMELINE
2016 fellowships begin in calendar year 2016 and last for 10 months. Each fellow’s start date will be individualized for the needs of that fellow and the news organization, but most fellowships will begin in February or March of 2016.
FELLOWSHIP LOCATIONS
Fellows are based, unless special circumstances dictate, in the town of their host news organization.
Our fellowship locations for 2016 are:
- Correct!v - Berlin, Germany
- The Coral Project - New York, NY (based out of the New York Times)
- Frontline - Boston, MA
- Los Angeles Times Data Desk - Los Angeles, CA
- NPR - Washington, DC
- Vox Media - Austin, TX; New York, NY; or Washington, DC
We make every attempt to match skills of fellows with needs of news organizations when connecting fellow to their host organization.
STIPEND AND FINANCIAL BENEFITS
The Knight-Mozilla Fellowship is designed to allow flexibility for both fellows and fellowship Partners. The standard fellowship offers a stipend of $60,000, paid in 10 monthly installments. fellows are responsible for remitting all applicable taxes and other government payments as required.
Mozilla may, in consultation with fellows and fellowship Partners, elect to vary the amount and duration to accommodate the needs and availability of individual fellows and newsrooms.
To help offset cost of living, the fellowship also provides supplements for childcare and health insurance, and helps pay for research/equipment and books. If you relocate for a fellowship, we will also supplement your housing and moving expenses. The fellowship also covers the costs of required travel for fellowship activities.
Supplements below listed as yearly maximums.
HOUSING SUPPLEMENT
| Single, married or partnered fellow | $5,000 |
| Fellow with 1 child | $7,000 |
| Fellow with 2 children | $8,500 |
| Fellow with 3 or more children | $10,000 |
CHILD CARE SUPPLEMENT
| 1 child age 12* or younger | $5,600 |
| 2 children ages 12* or younger | $6,000 |
| 3 children ages 12* or younger | $6,400 |
| 4 or more children ages 12* or younger | $7,200 |
| Additional allowance for child 3* years or younger | $6,400 |
* Age defined on March 31 of application year.
HEALTH INSURANCE SUPPLEMENT
The fellowship pays a health insurance supplement for fellows and their families, ranging from $3,500 for single fellows to $7,000 for a couple with two or more children. Funds are provided by way of monthly reimbursement.
MOVING ALLOWANCE
Up to $2,000 for fellows moving between cities within their country of origin. Up to $4,000 for fellows moving outside their country of origin. The fellowship also offers a supplemental allowance for families with children of up to $2,000.
RESEARCH & EQUIPMENT
Up to $3,000 annually will be given towards the purchase of laptop computers, digital cameras, recorders, fees for Continuing Studies or other courses related to the fellowship, computer software, research fees or payments, and travel expenses for conferences or other research related to the fellow’s research or study.
SERVER ALLOWANCE
Up to $250 to cover the server costs associated with deploying projects such as fees for Heroku, Amazon Web Services, and domain registration.
TRAVEL ALLOWANCE
All approved fellowship trips – domestic and international – are covered. Additional travel required by the fellowship Partners will be covered by them.
VISA ASSISTANCE
Mozilla will work directly with fellowship Partners to secure temporary work visas on behalf of fellows who require them.
The application process is easy and brief. Apply now or learn more about how it works.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://opennews.org/what/fellowships/