The USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism is now accepting applications for the Knight Luce Fellowship for Reporting on Global Religion.

The stipend is $5,000 – $25,000 to allow American journalists to report and write stories illuminating how religion crosses geographic, temporal and ideological borders.

From the USC Annenberg site:

Applicants should consider what these dynamics reveal about personal identity, political power, the search for meaning, the nature of conflict and the construction of community. Their stories can explore how religion, religious institutions and religious people (1) effect change in on-the-ground social, political, and economic conditions; (2) circulate ideas and ideologies among home and diaspora communities; and (3) promote or inhibit religious and political coexistence and cooperation. Stories must be reported outside the U.S., although they may include an American context for contrast or comparison.

Successful applicants are required to do at least three stories for multiple delivery platforms: print, radio, TV, online. All work is to be completed within six months of getting the award and must be finished by December 31, 2011.

Several fellows will be invited to spend three days in residence at the University of Southern California once all the projects are done. Those invited to USC will conduct master classes for journalism students, present their work in seminars, and deliver public lectures for the USC community.

The Anneberg office stresses that this is a program for working journalists, not journalism students or journalism educators.

Fortunately for many of us, freelancers or self-employed journalists individuals who regularly publish, post and/or broadcast online, in print or over the airwaves are eligible. Applications must include either a letter of recommendation from an editor/manager of an organization that regularly posts, publishes or broadcasts the applicants work or by an experienced journalist who can speak to the applicants work in convincing detail.

No advanced degree or specialized training in religion is required.

Click HERE to contact the USC Annenberg office for more information.

As part of a series of classes and seminars on how to break into foreign affairs work, the Foreign Policy Association is holding a seminar in New York City the evening of Nov. 8 on how to become a foreign correspondent.

From the notice:

In this course you will learn:

• Practical steps to launching your career as a foreign correspondent
• How to pitch stories to publications that cover global issues
• The difference between staff, stringers and freelance reporters
• What skill set will help you gather, create and publish global content from abroad

All in all it sounds like a good course for a journalist looking to break out of his/her current job or who is looking for work.

Cost: $60 for FPA members. $65 for non-members.

The session will be held at the Victor Borge Hall – Scandinavia House (58 Park Avenue)

More information

Managing Editor, Arms Control Today

Organization: Arms Control Association

Location: United States (Washington, DC)

Email: jobs@armscontrol.org

Brief Description:

The Arms Control Association, a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting public understanding of and support for effective arms control policies, is seeking a full-time Managing Editor, a critical part of the small team that produces Arms Control Today, a monthly publication widely considered to be authoritative in its field.

The successful applicant would be expected to have a professional background involving some combination of the following: editing experience; journalistic reporting or similar experience in researching, writing, and fact-checking under time constraints; familiarity with issues of arms control, nonproliferation, and international security; and marketing acumen. The Managing Editor must be extremely detail-oriented, have strong personal and organizational skills, work well under deadlines, and have the ability both to follow direction and to improvise as needed to complete tasks.

Click here for full description

Okay, it ain’t journalism but it is a way to put those journalism skills to work.

Media Relations Coordinator

Organization: Center for Global Development

Location: United States (Washington, DC)

Website: http://www.cgdev.org

Contact Information: Ben Edwards

Description:

The Center for Global Development (CGD) seeks an energetic and creative Media Relations Coordinator to join its communications and policy outreach team. CGD is an independent, non-profit research organization in Washington, D.C., that works to improve the policies of the rich world–the United States, other rich countries, and such institutions as the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization–to improve economic and social development prospects in poor countries.

Click here for full description

Tom Crampton, an old Hong Kong buddy, just posted an announcement about two job openings at the South China Morning Post.

Thought there might be one of two people out there who might be interested.

Jobs: South China Morning Post Editorial Jobs

Got this in an email from the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize:

The European Commission has officially launched the 18th edition of the Lorenzo Natali Prize !

You can apply on the website www.nataliprize2010.eu.

The Lorenzo Natali Prize concerns journalists working for media in one of the five following regions: Africa, Asia and Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and the Arab World and the Middle East. It rewards journalists for their work defending democracy and the Human rights within the Developing World. For the first time in 2008, the Lorenzo Natali Prize also involves radio and television journalists.

Each applicant can deliver ONE journalistic work or ONE extract of a journalistic work printed or aired between July 1st 2009 and June 30th 2010.

The seventeen laureates of the Lorenzo Natali Prize will be guests of honour of the European Commission during a stay in Brussels. Each laureate will receive a trophy and a prize. Overall 60,000 euros of prize will reward the best works.

For further information  feel free to visit the website: www.nataliprize2010.eu

Media affairs intern for the Iraqi embassy in Washington, DC.

Click here for details.

For all of you “between jobs,” maybe teaching English in China is something you might want to try.

English Teaching Fellows

Organization: Jiao Fellows Program
Location: China (Jining)
Website: www.jiaofellows.org

Contact Information: Kanyi Maqubela
Email: apply@jiaofellows.org

Description:
The Jining Fellowship is set in Jining, Shandong Province (the home of Confucius Kung Fu Tze) halfway between Shanghai and Beijing. The fellows will teach conversational English to children ages 3-18, and experience life and work in the heart of China. All teachers receive training before stepping into the classroom. The training is done by professional teachers who have designed the material and the lessons and have been teaching in China for eight years (kindergarten and university).

We are looking for intelligent and enthusiastic native English speakers who want to discover Chinese culture and work with fantastic children. Our teachers work in an environment where they can build relationships with their students and Chinese co-teachers (a native Chinese teacher fluent in English is present for every class).

Rest of job description

(First posted for students and faculty at George Mason University.)

Face it, it’s a rough market for journalists. Reporters and editors are getting laid off all over the place.

So what is a student journalist to do?

I have argued to my students that they need to do something to set them apart from all the other qualified writers, editors or producers. One way is to come up with story ideas (and stories) that show how local and global events are connected. Another is to take some time between graduation and journalism work to do something that will make them look more “hire-able.”

I recommended to my students one way to do that is to sign up for the Peace Corps. And today being the 49th anniversary of the founding of the Corps got me thinking about it again.

And let us not forget that President Kennedy first proposed the idea of the Peace Corps to students at the University of Michigan in 1960.

Besides all the experiences — and language skills — a person gets working for the PC, it gives them an overseas work experience line on their resume.

When I lived in the Dominican Republic (2003-2006) my family regularly hosted large numbers of Peace Corps volunteers in our house. Each time I talked with these volunteers, I felt more impressed with those who signed up to live in the wilderness and help others gain a better life.

The skills learned negotiating with local leaders to help them develop sustainable agriculture or build education or health infrastructure projects far exceed anything one can learn in college or in the first few years of journalism work.

Exposure to foreign cultures gives PC volunteers a wider (and better) view of how events affect people. Peace Corps volunteers end up seeing more to an issue than those who have not had the international experience.

And working in the Peace Corps — as mentioned earlier — gives a job applicant international work experience. Employers know the difference between “semester abroad” experiences, “traveled overseas,” and “worked and lived overseas.” (To my mind, there is nothing like living and working in a different culture to get a wider perspective of the world.)

Here is a partial list of some of the notable journalists who were Peace Corps volunteers:

• David Briscoe, chief correspondent of World Desk for Associated Press (Philippines 1966-70)
• Dan Carney, reporter for Business Week (Benin 1983-85)
• Judy Dugan, assistant editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times (Philippines 1966-68)
• Josh Friedman, Pulitzer prize winner for international reporting and director of international programs, Columbia School of Journalism (Costa Rica 1964-66)
• Kathleen Ingley, reporter for the Arizona Republic (Senegal 1972-75)
• Al Kamen, writes In the Loop column in the Washington Post (Dominican Republic 1967-69)
• Robert Laird, op-ed page editor for N.Y. Daily News (Somalia 1962-63)
• Michael Maidenberg, Pulitzer prize-winning publisher and member of the board of trustees for the Knight Foundation (India 1964-66)
• Chris Matthews, host of NBC’s Hardball (Swaziland 1968-70)

One of the other benefits of signing on with the Peace Corps for just-graduated or soon to graduate students is that many student loan programs allow loan payments to be deferred during the 18 month PC assignment.

Check out the Peace Corps here.