Deadline: 16-Jul-2025
The Earth Shorts is seeking social media content creators curious to learn more about biodiversity issues and incorporate journalism skills, as well as environmental journalists interested in building their social media skills for a joint fellowship program designed to enable both groups to share insights and create evidence-based and engaging biodiversity-related content on social media.
The EJN is expanding this initiative across South and Southeast Asia to a larger group of fellows. They seek to strengthen the quality of actionable biodiversity information on social media platforms, produced by both journalists and content creators—and consequently, deepen public engagement with local, national and regional biodiversity issues.
Funding Information
- They will offer US$2,000 each to 10 social media content creators and 10 journalists across South and Southeast Asia, to bring together a cohort of 20 information producers interested in boosting their skills, participating in peer learning and producing high-quality biodiversity-related video content for their audiences.
Program Logistics
- Workshop and online seminars: Selected fellows will take part in a pre-workshop survey to assess their capacity, interests and needs, and then join a three-day virtual workshop, which will feature both joint and separate sessions.
- Content production and mentorship: Applicants will propose ideas for short-form videos in their application and will have the opportunity to refine these ideas and their distribution plan with support from their assigned mentors.
- Peer learning: Fellows will have the opportunity to share content, experiences, strategies and lessons with each other and with EJN staff as part of regular sharing sessions. Journalists and creators will be encouraged to collaborate and provide peer feedback on each other’s work.
- Safety: They encourage selected fellows to follow public health regulations and best practices for local disease outbreaks if recording content out in public so you do not endanger yourself or the people you’re speaking to. They also encourage fellows to follow best practices to safeguard their physical and digital safety.
- Language of publication: Content can be produced in any language. They encourage the production of content in the language that resonates best with your audience, However, applicants who intend to produce content in their local language should also provide English subtitles or captions for wider reach.
- Acknowledgement of EJN support: Content produced as part of this training and grant opportunity should acknowledge EJN support verbally or in writing by including this tagline: “Produced as part of #EarthShorts @earthjournalism.” Exceptions may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
- Republication rights: Internews’ EJN, its partners and the grant funder have the right to freely distribute all content produced as an output of this program.
Eligibility Criteria
- They will accept applications from social media content creators and journalists based in South and Southeast Asia, which includes the following countries: Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Bhutan, Thailand (including Myanmar nationals based in Thailand), Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, and the Philippines.
- Content creators should actively and frequently post short-form videos on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X or other leading social media platforms, relating to topics such as lifestyle, social issues, travel, science, economy, politics, and health. They ask that creators have an audience size between 20,000 and 200,000 followers. Creators should not be currently reporting for any media outlets; former journalists are eligible. Prior content focused on biodiversity is not a requirement, however, an interest in linking your work to biodiversity issues is key.
- Journalists should actively and frequently be reporting on biodiversity issues, and can be on staff at a media outlet or freelance. Journalists should have an active presence on TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X or other leading social media platforms (posting at least once a week and/or regularly creating video or text content about their journalistic projects), but there is no audience size requirement. Prior experience as a content creator is not a requirement, however, an interest in increasing your social media skills is key.
- For the purposes of this grant opportunity, they will accept applications in English only. Applicants must either have a working understanding of English or have a translator available to assist with communication with Internews staff. However, creators and journalists can produce work in any language.
- EJN reserves the right to disqualify applicants from consideration if they have been found to have engaged in unethical or improper professional conduct, including, but not limited to, plagiarism and/or submitting AI-generated content as their own.
Judging Criteria
- Relevance
- Angle
- Impact
- Innovative storytelling
- Motivation
- Availability
For more information, visit EJN.