Journalism in the digital era: Amazon #ijf16 writing contest

La Stampa, DWDL.de and El Pais are the media partners that will publish the five winning essays on the topic ‘Journalism in the digital era’. The winning essays will be published as an eBook on Kindle Store. Amazon will also award five university students a trip to Perugia so they can take part in the International Journalism Festival.

amazon-ijf16

For the second year Amazon is pleased to launch the International Journalism Festival Scholarship Writing Contest. University students from across Europe aged 18-25 are invited to write an essay of 1.000 words or fewer about the topic ‘Journalism in the digital era‘.

The five winning students will have their essays published by La Stampa, DWDL.de and El Pais during the week of the festival, and receive reimbursement of full airfare and hotel accommodation from Amazon so they may attend the International Journalism Festival in Perugia (06-10 April 2016).

The contest starts today and the deadline for submissions is 04 March 2016. The essays will be judged based on their relevance to the subject, on their originality, writing style, innovative ideas and on how engaging they are. The winning essays will be published in an eBook on Kindle Store. You can read last year’s essays here.

As new editor-in-chief of La Stampa Massimo Russo stated: “In recent years, as never before, the role of journalism and journalists has changed and evolved. The digital era has launched a new way to communicate, enjoy and share news based on an exchange between readers and journalists. This kind of relationship requires us to re-think our profession from a more responsible perspective. The new edition of the scholarship sponsored by La Stampa and Amazon at the International Journalism Festival represents an important opportunity to continue talking about this topic together with young talented authors from all over Europe who are digital natives.”

“We are very pleased to bring this scholarship to the International Journalism Festival for the second consecutive year: it allows students from Europe to be part of this discussion, share their ideas on future of journalism, and maybe be part our next generation of leading journalists” said Russ Grandinetti, Senior VP Kindle. “We are also excited to once again sponsor the International Journalism Festival, which is a great forum for sharing ideas and discovering new ways that we as readers will consume news, insights and opinions in the future.”

Students can submit their entry for the International Journalism Festival Scholarship by filling in the form on the dedicated IJF scholarship webpages. Simply upload your essay and fill in the registration form. The deadline for submission is 04 March 2016. The winners will be announced in March. For more information and a complete set of rules, visit the official page.

The International Journalism Festival has announced that Amazon is sponsoring the festival for the third consecutive year. The 10th edition of the festival – the largest annual media event in Europe featuring dozens of daily sessions and hundreds of speakers – will be held from 06 to 10 April in Perugia, Italy. Amazon and IJF both believe in the foremost importance of readers and in helping content creators, including journalists and authors, to connect with even more readers and in new and different ways.

Thanks to the support of Amazon, the festival will strengthen its role as a five-day full-immersion think-tank where journalists can exchange opinions with readers and/or other journalists on the implications of the profound changes that have been taking place in the world of news and knowledge (newspapers, books), which has been transformed almost overnight from a static into a free-flowing environment, into a new world offering seemingly unlimited possibilities.