{"id":10561,"date":"2016-09-17T13:24:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T13:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ona16.journalists.org\/?p=10561"},"modified":"2017-02-17T22:48:59","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T22:48:59","slug":"ona-challenge-fund-to-hack-journalism-education-gets-new-985000-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ona16.journalists.org\/2016\/09\/17\/ona-challenge-fund-to-hack-journalism-education-gets-new-985000-boost\/","title":{"rendered":"ONA Challenge Fund to \u2018hack\u2019 journalism education gets new $985,000 boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"challenge-fund-featured-image-logos-2\"<\/a>DENVER \u2014 Sept. 15, 2016 \u2014 To help journalism educators better prepare students to meet 21st century information needs, five major foundations today announced nearly $1 million in support to the Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. The micro-grant contest, which encourages universities to create teams to experiment with new ways of providing news and information, is run by the Online News Association (ONA), the world\u2019s largest membership group of digital journalists.<\/p>\n

Announced today at ONA\u2019s 2016 conference,<\/a> the funding will provide an additional two years of support for the challenge, which was launched in 2013 by a funder collaborative that includes the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation<\/a>; the Democracy Fund<\/a>; Excellence and Ethics in Journalism Foundation<\/a>; the Robert R. McCormick Foundation<\/a> and the Rita Allen Foundation<\/a>. All five foundations have renewed their support for this round of funding, totaling $985,000.
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\nThe challenge will support \u201clive news experiments\u201d that further the development of teaching hospital models in journalism education, creating opportunities for journalism schools to collaborate with newsrooms, researchers and other professionals to produce innovative local news for a digital audience.<\/p>\n

The fund will produce 15 to 20 projects during the next two years with micro-grants of as much as $35,000 each. Applications will open this fall for projects to be completed no later than the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.<\/p>\n

Teams will be selected based on ideas that show the most potential for encouraging collaborative, student-produced local news coverage, bridging the professor-professional gap, using innovative techniques and technologies, and learning from digital-age news experiments. This round will also focus on projects that experiment in four key areas: diversity, technology, community engagement and civic participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to help educators continue to push boundaries of experimentation within journalism education,\u201d said Irving Washington, ONA deputy director. \u201cThe projects from our first cycle had tremendous impact in their local communities and showed the critical role of collaboration to the future of journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlights from the first cycle include:<\/p>\n