Tuesday, July 15, 2008

THE INNOVATION JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM AT STANFORD 

'JOURNALISM DRIVING INNOVATION. INNOVATION DRIVING JOURNALISM.'

Director: Dr. David Nordfors
PI: Prof. Stig Hagström
SCIL / H-STAR, Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute
Stanford University

INNOVATION JOURNALISM

Innovation Journalism (Injo) is journalism covering innovation. It covers innovation processes and innovation ecosystems.


Innovation is the process of creating and delivering new user value. Innovation is more than invention. An invention is something new, it can be done by a single person. Innovation is the introduction of something new, it always involves the interaction between several people.


Innovation is a horizontal process.  It is about how technology, business and politics change each other. It is the key element of paradigm shifts and cultural change.


Traditional newsbeats - like business, technology, science and political journalism - treat innovation as a topic within each beat, focusing on certain aspects of innovation processes and ecosystems. The story of how innovation happens is chopped up to fit into the specific news slot, usually technology or business journalism, and the bigger picture is often lost. 


For Innovation Journalism the process of innovation itself is the central concept, treating business, technology, politics etc. as nested components of a news story. It can tell the story of innovation and convey the bigger picture. In terms of traditional newsbeats, InJo is multidisciplinary. InJo can be seen either as a horizontal newsbeat or as a mindset within traditional newsbeats, spanning across the old beats. InJo identifies and reports on issues in the innovation ecosystems, such as emerging concepts, interactions of stakeholders, or innovation value chains. It spans themes such as science and technology trends, intellectual property, finance, standardization, industrial production processes, marketing of new technologies, business models, politics, cultural trends, social impacts, and more.


The concept of Innovation Journalism (InJo) was coined in 2003 by David Nordfors.


THE INNOVATION JOURNALISM PROGRAM

The Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford is the worlds first Injo program. It was founded by SCIL, Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning and VINNOVA, The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems.

The Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford organizes the Innovation Journalism Fellowships, where each year a selected number of journalists mix workshops and conferences at Stanford with covering innovation in collaboration with hosting newsrooms. The fellowship program is operated in collaboration with IIIJ, the International Institute of Innovation Journalism, a non-profit foundation which serves the program at Stanford with off-campus activities.

The activities of the program can be followed on the innovation journalism blog.

The program at Stanford hosts The Conference on Innovation Journalism, which has run yearly since 2004, and is the global meeting point for people interested in the topic.

Each year, innovation journalism initiatives around the world nominate candidates to the Injo Fellowships. The initiatives perform screening of candidates and guarantee funding for their Injo Fellows. Presently, the following Innovation Journalism initiatives are nominating Fellows:

INJO INITIATIVE
ORGANIZER
FUNDER
DIRECTOR
No. Injo Fellows in previous round
Sweden
VINNOVA
VINNOVA
Jan Sandred, Program Director, VINNOVA.
6
Finland
Helsingin Sanomat Foundation
Helsinging Sanomat Foundation / SITRA
Dr. Turo Uskali, Senior Researcher, University of Jyäskylä
3
Pakistan
Competitiveness Support Fund
Competitiveness Support Fund / USAID
Amir Jahangir, Consultant, Competitiveness Support Fund
4
Slovenia
Vibacom
Ad Futura
Violeta Bulc, President, Vibacom
N/A

If you are interested in being an Innovation Journalism Fellow, contact the relevant nominating innovation journalism initiative above.

If you are interested in developing Innovation Journalism initiatives, contact Dr David Nordfors.

INNOVATION JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM: AIMS AND REQUIREMENTS

The aim of the innovation journalism fellowship program is to co-develop the concept and community of innovation journalism.

This involves
  • Forming a collegial network of innovation journalists, for mutual benefit of the members of the network.
  • Identifying and developing best practices
  • Shaping a common understanding of professional ethics and the role of innovation journalism in society
  • Understanding and developing the business of innovation journalism

Fellows in the program are a part of making this happen.

We encourage applicants who are entrepreneurial, curious, active, interested in expanding their knowledge in new directions, and like taking active part in community-building.

CURRICULUM

The fellowship program is five to six months long, and has the following activities. (All dates are preliminary):

  1. Stanford Innovation Lectures Series. Lectures by Stanford faculty and staff. Presentation of Stanford innovation. Organized in cooperation with Stanford Public Affairs, and communication directors of the Stanford Schools. Preliminary dates: Once a week 4pm-5.30pm
  2. Meet the Players.  Presentations and Q&As with players in the innovation ecosystem. Preliminary dates: During InnovationBeat - February
  3. InnovationBeat Newsroom. A training newsroom for all fellows, a learning-by-doing approach on reporting on the Silicon Valley. http://www.innovationbeat.com Preliminary dates: All of February
  4. Working with Hosting Newsrooms. Fellows spend 4-5 month inside a leading US newsroom. Each fellow is assigned by the newsroom to cover innovation issues. (Summaries of stories published by fellows 2007/8 is available on https://www.innovationjournalism.org/doer ). Preliminary dates: Starting March 2, continuing for at least four months.
    Hosting newsrooms 2008: AlwaysOn-Network, San Francisco / Bloomberg, San Francisco / CNET News.com, San Francisco / Fortune, Manhattan, NY / GigaOm, San Francisco / PC World, San Francisco / San Francisco Chronicle / VentureBeat, San Francisco / Xconomy, Boston
    Potential hosts 2009: (There may be additions) AlwaysOn-Network, San Francisco / Bloomberg, San Francisco / VentureBeat, San Francisco /
  5. IJ-6, The Sixth Conference on Innovation Journalism. Each Fellow is in charge of one session at the conference, which they dedicate to an important aspect of innovation journalism of their choice. (The program of IJ-5 2008 and the presentations by the Fellows is available here ). Dates: May 20-22
  6. The Making of Public Innovation Policy. Workshop with the US National Academies
  7. The Role of Media in Society. Workshop with the World Economic Forum Media&Entertainment Industry Partnership.
  8. Study trip to the US East Coast.

POTENTIAL HOSTING NEWSROOMS 2009

(Confirmed potential hosts here below. More potential hosts to be added)


IJ-6, THE SIXTH CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION JOURNALISM

Venue: Stanford University 
Dates: May 20-22 2009

Among the keynote speakers: 
Vint Cerf, VP & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google; "Father of the Internet"
Zafar Siddiqi, Founder & Chairman, CNBC Pakistan, CNBC Arabiya, CNBC Africa

Each Innovation Journalism Fellow 2009 will present a session at the conference.

The conference offers a meeting place for people from over the world to develop their interest and networks around innovation journalism. 

The website of the previous conference, IJ-4, is available here.


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