The Blacklight, the New York Amsterdam News’ investigative unit, is excited to announce our 2023 Gun Violence Reporting Fellowship, which is part of our Beyond the Barrel of the Gun initiative. Funded by the Google News Initiative News Equity Fund, we are seeking an investigative reporting fellow who will work with our investigative unit to report on the root causes and the impact of gun violence within our Black and Brown communities, as well as the solutions to this plague which disproportionately harms Black and Brown New Yorkers.
Founded in 1909, The New York Amsterdam News is America’s most influential continuously published Black newspaper, serving the nation’s largest Black and brown community – one of only fifty Black newspapers in the country at its founding.
This fellowship is designed for an early to mid career journalist who has reporting experience but is looking to deepen their practice by working on a longform investigative project. Our fellow may explore data journalism and visualization as well as public records and community-based reporting.
The fellowship will last up to three months and includes a stipend of $10,000.
To apply, please submit PDFs of the following documents: a thoughtful cover letter, 2-3 previously published stories (links are acceptable), a resume and a project proposal no longer than two pages detailing your story idea to blacklight@amsterdamnews.com with Fellowship in the subject line. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
The application period is now closed.
While we will determine an exact fellowship start date in consultation with the successful applicant, we expect the fellowship to begin no later than May 2023.
The ideal proposal will be for a series of articles and/or multimedia stories which explores an aspect of gun violence, its root causes and/or impact on Black and brown communities as well as solutions. We are especially interested in proposals that explore the idea of gun violence as a public health issue. While the Amsterdam News is based in New York, we will accept proposals that tackle this topic anywhere in the United States. Fellows should already based in the location they plan on reporting from as no additional travel funds are available. Applicants who have already done some pre reporting will have a distinct advantage.
In your proposal please answer the following questions:
What is the story about? Who is being impacted? Are there solutions to the challenges that you are writing about?
Has anyone else covered this story? If so, how is your proposal different or deeper than what has already been reported?
Who are the main subjects/sources/communities that you will be interviewing/profiling?
The New York Amsterdam News welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, military service or other protected status.