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The first blindly selected group is starting the GNI Student Fellowship
Fleur Leijte
—
Project manager
August 09, 2023
It is an exciting summer for a group of ambitious students and recent graduates.
They will spend 8 weeks writing articles, fact-checking social media posts, recording TikToks and podcasts, and creating compelling data-driven visuals at newsrooms across 9 European countries.
The 5th GNI Student Fellowship organised by the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and powered by Google News Initiative is a special one. This group was selected via a blind recruitment process that aimed to eliminate unconscious bias and create a fairer opportunity for getting a job in media. The EJC invited 20 newsrooms across Europe to sign up for a blind recruitment process that is meant to boost diversity in the European media landscape.
Studies have shown time and again that unconscious biases around factors such as gender, age, economic status, and ethnicity affect hiring decisions. To truly make the Fellowship accessible to all students and recent graduates who are interested in pursuing a career in media, we have implemented a blind recruitment selection process to limit unconscious bias as much as possible. This means that newsrooms did not know any personal information about the applicants during the selection process. In addition, the successful candidate has been selected based on the results of a relevant task, such as writing an article or multimedia editing, which will highlight the skills of the applicants and not their backgrounds. Read more about the blind recruitment process here.
‘’Having diverse voices in our industry helps to make for credible and more engaging reporting. It is vital to bring alternative perspectives to news stories so that the audience feels they are represented. The more diverse our media, the more representative of the society it serves and entertains.’’
-- Nikki Akinola, diversity and inclusion co-ordinator NCTJ, diversity partner UK
Our 2023 fellows:
- Hail from 13 different countries across 3 continents
- Speak 15 different languages
- Are mostly female: 84%
- Have many different expertise, ranging from History to Criminology, Data Science, and Political Sciences.
Meet the fellows!
More than just 8 weeks at a newsroom
The Fellowship offers young journalists the opportunity to kick-start their careers at a European newsroom. Fellows also participated in an online bootcamp where they got to know each other and attend workshops in preparation for their time in a newsroom. The group will also have the opportunity to attend this year’s News Impact Summit in Lisbon, where they will meet other journalists and media experts from all over the continent and improve their skills in climate reporting.