Media managers invited to apply for ‘Foundations of Artificial Intelligence in the Newsroom’ programme – chance to apply for €15,000 award

Media managers from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine are invited to apply to take part in a capacity building programme on ‘Foundations of AI in the Newsroom’, supported as part of the EU-funded EU4IndependentMedia programme.

The Foundations of AI is an interactive and intensive 9-week programme to impart the foundations and implications around generative AI on the news media industry, while facilitating peer exchange and networking between media throughout the European neighbourhood countries of Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. 

Delivered through 5 sequential lessons which culminate in a final assignment, participants will walk through the newsroom and operation applications of the new technology alongside ethics of adopting the rapidly changing technology. Each lesson is accompanied by an assignment that must be completed in order to progress to the next lesson. 

Local Facilitators will review the assignments and give feedback during semi weekly local chapter online tutorials. During these local tutorials, guest presenters from other local chapters will share their own stories of uses of AI in the newsroom either through production or processes, to encourage peer-to-peer exchanges and best practice share. Lyndsey Jones, course architect, will join in each local chapter tutorial at the mid-way point of the course. 

The final assignment will serve as a platform to apply for DT-Global funded production support that will be issued in the third quarter of 2024. Proposals should incorporate key learnings and tools imparted from the programme. Completion of the module is a prerequisite to consideration for the grants. Proposals will be reviewed by an impartial expert panel. A possibility of up to 30 awards, carrying maximum value of €15,000 each, may be issued. Proposals are submitted as the 4th and final assignment in the AI Module.

Additionally, the top proposal within each local chapter – as voted on by your peers –  will travel to Copenhagen to participate in the WAN-IFRA News Media Congress taking place from 27-29 May 2024.        

The application deadline is Friday 16 February.

Successful candidates should have a strong working knowledge of English. While course content and live interactions through webinars will be delivered in local languages, all assignments throughout the programme must be submitted in English. There are a total of 4 assignments, with the final assignment serving as the proposal for the EU4IM production support. 

The total approximate time investment required by participants is 1-2 hours per week for a period of 9 weeks, excluding the final assignment.

‘The Foundations of AI’ is the final module of the WAN-IFRA Women in News Digital ABCs series. WAN-IFRA is a consortium partner of the EU4IndependentMedia programme, which is funded by the European Union, and aims to foster resilience and financial sustainability of the independent media sector in Eastern Partnership countries by helping media to become more competitive, encourage innovation and adherence to strong editorial standards, and increase its offer of fact-based, gender-inclusive and reliable public interest journalism.

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