BOSTON – The GroundTruth Project is launching a $1 million initiative for climate change coverage around the world.
The GroundTruth Project, which trains and supports the next generation of international correspondents, will build a robust and diverse editorial team of reporting fellows and editors to lead a multimedia reporting project over the next three years that will track the impact of global warming.
“So many news organizations are struggling to find the way to cover a story as big and daunting as climate change,” said GroundTruth Founder and Executive Director Charles Sennott.
“At GroundTruth, we believe that investing in a new generation of correspondents is the best way to inspire innovative forms of digital storytelling and address the enormity of the peril that climate change poses for our planet while focusing on solutions,” added Sennott, a long-time foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe and the co-founder of GlobalPost.
Over the next two months, GroundTruth will begin the inaugural phase of this reporting initiative, selecting up to five reporting fellows from around the world who will travel to France for the 2015 Paris Climate Conference in December and produce live coverage of the event as well as develop sources and ideas that will help shape GroundTruth’s future climate change coverage. The four-week fellowships will include training and active mentoring by veteran correspondents and editors.
Throughout 2016, GroundTruth will launch further phases of this multi-year project and bring on additional members to this team of emerging multimedia journalists. This larger team will set out on international assignments to produce in-depth, multimedia packages, working in partnership with the digital team at Boston public media producer WGBH. The work the team produces will be featured on all WGBH News platforms: Radio, TV and Digital and offered to our national editorial partners, including PRI’s The World, PBS NewsHour, PBS NOVA, MSNBC and others.
“Our partnership with GroundTruth is another example of providing depth and context to our coverage of important stories, and we’re proud to provide exposure to the stories this next generation of journalists are uncovering and reporting,” said Phil Redo, General Manager for WGBH News.
GroundTruth also will seek new, international publishing and academic partners to bring this important work to a global audience, framing a dialogue around a search for solutions to the devastating impacts of climate change.
GroundTruth begins the editorial selection process today, looking for journalists of diverse media background including radio, video, photography, data visualization and the written word. Reporting fellowship applicants can be from any country, but must be early in their careers and show a demonstrated interest in, and unique talent for, covering the environment. Editors must have at least three years of reporting and editing on the environment. The deadline for applications is September 22, 2015.
Funding for GroundTruth comes through the generous support of individual donors and foundations. This climate change reporting initiative is made possible with major contributions from Vanguard Charitable on behalf of the JMB Charitable Fund, and the Bake Family Trust. GroundTruth, an independent, non-partisan organization registered by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is based at the PBS flagship producer WGBH in Boston, MA.
To find out more about how to apply for these reporting fellowships and editing positions please click here.
About The GroundTruth Project
The GroundTruth Project is dedicated to training the next generation of international correspondents and to adding increased knowledge and understanding on issues of social justice including human rights, freedom of expression, emerging democracies, the environment, religious affairs and global health. Our work is made possible through the generous contributions of individual donors and foundations including Ford Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Galloway Family Foundation, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Vanguard Charitable on behalf of the JMB Charitable Fund, and the Bake Family Trust. GroundTruth, an independent, non-partisan organization registered by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is based at the PBS flagship producer WGBH in Boston, MA.