Title: Diversity Reporting Fellowship

Company: The Caravan

Location: New Delhi, India

Job Category: Magazine

Experience: 0-2 years

Deadline: 10 December 2019

Company Description: The Caravan occupies a singular position among Indian magazines. Its stories present a unique mix of detailed reportage and lively and vivid writing, with a commitment to the art of storytelling, whether the subject is politics, culture or art.

The Caravan is published by the Delhi Press Group, one of India’s leading publishers. Started in 1939, Delhi Press today publishes 33 magazines in 10 languages.

Due to the near absence of journalists from marginalised communities, there is inadequate sensitivity to issues of caste, communalism and discrimination, in the Indian media. Studies such as the recent Oxfam Report on Caste Representation in Newsrooms have revealed the glaring underrepresentation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in India’s newsrooms.

The Caravan magazine is deeply committed to improving the representation of marginalised communities in the media. A 2019 study on diversity in Indian newsrooms found that The Caravan appeared to be an "exception" to a pattern of largely dominant-caste staffs of English-language magazines in India. The Caravan has one of the most diverse group of journalists in the team.

But we know we can still do better.

Job Description: We plan to hire two new reporting fellows—one position is reserved for SCs, STs and OBCs from fishing communities around India's vast coastline and river banks; the second position is reserved for tribal communities from the country's northeastern region.

Primary Responsibilities:

- Conceptualising, pitching and planning stories in politics, business or culture

- Reporting and writing at least four long form stories a year

- Occasionally writing articles for Vantage, the magazine’s web section

- Working closely with editors to plan reportage and edit material intensively into final stories

- Closely tracking developments in politics, business and other fields, and developing a wide range of sources to use while building long-form stories, combining investigation, data journalism and on-ground reportage

- Honing an approach that combines journalistic rigour with an eye for literary detail

Requirements: 0-2 years of experience in reporting and writing. Ability to cultivate sources, skills to conduct interviews, a nose for news, and a commitment to improving one’s own writing skills. Candidates with a university degree in any subject are preferred.

To Apply:
Please send a résumé, two samples of writing, three story ideas, two references (names and contacts) and a cover letter to Vinod K. Jose, Executive Editor, at [email protected] with the subject line “The Caravan Diversity Reporting Fellowship—2019” before 10 am on 10 December 2019. Please provide a copy of the community certificate for verification.