For freelance legal reporters
Syracuse University’ S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications will award four Carnegie/Newhouse
School Legal Reporting Fellowships to support freelance journalists
reporting on legal issues.
The $3,000 awards include paid student research assistants for each
reporting fellow, which will give Newhouse studentspractical experience
covering law and the courts.The fellowships are open to freelance
journalists working in any medium with the intent of helping them pay
out-of-pocket expenses.
“As a freelance writer and former editor, I know that it takes a lot of
resources just to put a story or a book at the starting line,” says
Mark Obbie, director of the Newhouse School’s Carnegie Legal Reporting
Program; associate director of the Institute for the Study of the
Judiciary, Politics and the Media (IJPM); and an associate professor.
“Journalists on staff in news organizations often have the resources to
invest in prospective stories. But freelancers are taking a personal
financial risk when they invest in an early-stage story. With our help,
they might be more willing to take that risk.”
Fellowship applications are available online at
http://newhouse.syr.edu/legal.
Application deadline is September 8. A panel of faculty members from
the Newhouse School will choose the winners. Fellowship money and
student research assistants will be available for the 2008-2009
academic year.
Newhouse students will be invited to compete for the four research
assistant positions, which carry a stipend. “We exist to teach our
students journalism—and, more to the point here, good legal reporting,”
Obbie says. “By working alongside professionals, our students will
learn about the legal system in new, practical ways.”
The Carnegie/Newhouse School Legal Reporting Fellowships are part of
the Newhouse School’s Carnegie Legal Reporting Program. Supported by a
grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and its Carnegie
Journalism Initiative, the program provides a number of services
designed to teach students about the workings of the American legal
system and the role of the news media in covering the law. Additional
funding for this year’s fellowships is provided by IJPM.
For more information, contact
Obbie at (315) 443-2848 or
mjobbie@syr.edu; or see
http://newhouse.syr.edu/legal.