THE INNOVATION JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM AT STANFORD 

Program Director: David Nordfors

Faculty PI: Stig Hagström

H-STAR, Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute, Stanford University

INNOVATION JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM: AIMS AND REQUIREMENTS

The innovation journalism fellowship program aims to co-develop the concept and community of innovation journalism in a global arena. This involves:

• Forming a collegial network of innovation journalists, for mutual benefit of the network members;

• Identifying and developing best practices;

• Shaping a common understanding of professional ethics and innovation journalism's role in society;

• Understanding and developing the business of innovation journalism.

Program fellows help make this happen. Innovation Journalism Fellows should be entrepreneurial, curious, active, interested in expanding their knowledge in new directions and participate in community-building.

PRELIMINARY CURRICULUM

SCHEDULED START AT STANFORD: FEB 2010

The fellowship program is 5-6 months long, starting in February with an introduction period at Stanford. Thereafter the Fellows are hosted by US newsrooms. There will be recurring activities at Stanford throughout the Fellowship. The Fellows also interact in an online community throughout the Fellowship.

Activities (preliminary program subject to change):

1. Introduction Period 

1. Introduction to Innovation Journalism. Introductory workshop on the Innovation Journalism concept. 

2. Meet the Players and Experts. Presentations and Q&As with players in the innovation ecosystem and the experts studying it. 

3. Introduction to Reporting on the Silicon Valley. Looks at use of language, newsroom culture, sources, tools, ethics, etc. We will be aiming at working together as a group. 

2. Working with Hosting Newsrooms. Fellows spend 4-5 month in a leading US newsroom. The newsroom assigns each fellow to cover innovation issues. (Summaries of stories published by fellows 2007/8/9 are available on http://www.innovationjournalism.org/doer ). After introduction period, continuing for at least four months.

3. IJ-7, The Sixth Conference on Innovation Journalism. Each Fellow leads one session at the conference, which they dedicate to an important aspect of innovation journalism of their choice (the program of IJ-6 2009 and the presentations by the Fellows is available here). Dates: June 7-9 2010

4. Study trip to the US East Coast.(Probably June)

1. The Making of Public Innovation Policy. Workshop with the US National Academies, Washington DC.

2. The Role of Media in Society. Workshop with the World Economic Forum Media & Entertainment Industry Partnership, New York. 

HOSTING NEWS ORGANIZATIONS 

The following news organizations have expressed an interest in potentially hosting Fellows in 2010:

CNET/CBS, San Francisco / New York; CIR - Center for Investigative Reporting, San Francisco (Berkeley); Fortune, New York; GreenTech Media, San Francisco; Hablaguate.com, Guatemala City; New Scientist, San Francisco;  SEED Media, New York; Scobleizer - Robert Scoble, Silicon Valley; Spot.us, San Francisco; Technology Review, Boston;   Thomson Reuters (several locations possible); VentureBeat, Silicon Valley; Xconomy, Boston/Seattle/San Diego;

Previous hosting newsrooms: Fortune (New York): 6 years, 7 fellows; San Francisco Chronicle: 6 years, 7 Fellows; CNET News.com: 4 years, 7 Fellows; PC World: 3 years, 3 Fellows; Business 2.0: 3 years, 3 Fellows; VentureBeat - 2 year, 4 Fellows; AlwaysOn Network: 2 years, 4 Fellows; Red Herring: 2 years, 3 Fellows; Wall Street Journal - 2 years, 2 Fellows; Fast Company - 2 years, 2 Fellows; Xconomy: 2 years, 2 Fellows; GigaOm: 1 year, 1 Fellow; Bloomberg: 1 year, 1 Fellow; IEEE Spectrum: 1 year, 1 Fellow; SEED Magazine: 1 year, 1 Fellow; AllVoices.com: 1 year, 2 Fellows; Technologizer: 1 year, 1 Fellow; Technology Review: 1 year, 1 Fellow; IDG News Service: 1 year, 1 Fellow; Science: 1 year, 1 Fellow; PodTech.net: 1 year, 1 Fellow.

IJ-7, THE SEVENTH CONFERENCE ON INNOVATION JOURNALISM

Venue: Stanford University 

Dates:  May 10-12 2010 

Each Innovation Journalism Fellow 2010 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-6, is available here.

ABOUT INNOVATION JOURNALISM

Innovation Journalism (InJo) is journalism covering innovation processes and innovation ecosystems. 

Innovation is the process of creating and delivering new user value. It is more than invention. An invention is something new and can be done by an individual; innovation is the introduction into practice by others of something new, always involving interaction between several individuals or groups. 

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

Traditional newsbeats--business, technology, science and political journalism--tend to treat innovation as a topic within each beat, focusing on certain aspects of innovation processes and ecosystems. 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. Vs. traditional newsbeats, InJo is multidisciplinary, considered either as a horizontal newsbeat or as a mindset within traditional newsbeats, spanning 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, political influences, 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 selected 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 that serves the program at Stanford with off-campus activities. External contributing program content partners: SRI International, US National Academies, the World Economic Forum Media Entertainment Industry Partnership 

Program activies 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. 

HOW TO BECOME AN INNOVATION JOURNALISM FELLOW

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

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 David Nordfors.