Calling all innovative postgrad student journalists

Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award

The BBC College of Journalism is launching its first award this month, championing the most innovative postgraduate students at the UK's journalism schools. 

The world of journalism is undergoing a period of radical change. New technology, social media, data analysis and the way in which the mainstream media engage with their audiences, and the wider community, is having a profound effect on the way journalists operate. 

Some of the most creative material is coming out of the UK's journalism schools and we want to reward that with the Postgraduate Student Journalism Innovation Award. We're looking for the most talented of the next generation of journalism students who are using genuinely new ways of working.

The criteria are deliberately broad, designed to encourage students to produce a piece of fantastic original journalism using the very latest skills and techniques. 

This could mean a visionary form of crowdsourced newsgathering, excellent multimedia and multiplatform working, infographics, data analysis, or a really clever use of social media. In short, anything that illustrates journalistic ingenuity.

As well as being innovative, each piece must demonstrate first-class public interest journalism. At the heart of each piece of work we want to see reporting that embraces the truest form of journalism, the fourth estate: holding power to account and exposing wrong-doing at all levels. The latest advances in journalism need to keep this at their very core.

The competition is open to all postgraduate journalism students in the UK. It's officially launched this December with the closing date for entries being the end of April.

The award will be judged by a panel of senior media industry figures and presented at a major BBC College of Journalism conference at the BBC's new home at MediaCityUK in Salford. The presentation will take place in front of some of the key movers and shakers in UK journalism: the event represents a fantastic opportunity to network and showcase your work.

The winner and shortlisted candidates will have their work shown on both the College of Journalism and BBC Academy websites. The overall winner will also receive a unique prize that will no doubt give their career a well deserved boost. 

We believe this is a great opportunity for us to work more closely with the UK's journalism schools and give students the chance to engage with the BBC.

Find more details on how to enter. 

If you have any queries, please contact David Hayward, Journalism Programme, BBC College of Journalism: david.hayward@bbc.co.uk.