Calling all journalism students! Apply for a fellowship at Facebook.
Facebook is offering students a pretty fantastic opportunity to apply for content strategy fellowships and attend one of the leading content strategy conferences, ConFab Minneapolis, this summer. Three fellowship winners will receive the following:
- A full conference pass to Confab Minneapolis (June 3-5)
- All-expenses paid travel (flight, hotel and stipend)
- A private reception to introduce the winners
- Opportunity to apply for a paid 12-week internship in Menlo Park, Ca.
Journalism needs content strategists. In a traditional newsroom, one might think the content strategy role is filled the managing editor who, historically, has been the one to determine who writes what story, the workflow and how best utilize a given budget. Managing editors oversee and coordinate editorial activities — what content goes where, the length and depth of an article, all while preserving the publication's voice and style. They set the agenda, the general tone, and are ultimately responsible for the content.
Most managing editors have the skills, background and history ideal for print or broadcast, but not necessarily for digital, web and mobile publishing.
Content strategists take the work of the typical managing editor a few steps further. They not only have a passion for the quality of content on the web but they also work systems and workflows intended to maximize the impact of that content. And the best strategists draw on their editorial skills and background to develop solutions for content to be in one place and the smartly routed to many platforms. In other words, content strategists make phenomenal editors, but editors do not necessarily make good content strategists.
Journalism needs more content strategists, particularly strategists with training or experience as a journalist. For those just getting started, a background in content strategy for the web and mobile will only make you that much more of a valuable in a newsroom. Therefore … Students! Jump on this. The application deadline is March 29 and more details can be found on the Confab's events blog.
Also, if you'd like to learn more about content strategy:
- Kristina Halvorson: Content Strategy for the Web, her reading list on Firehead, and her blog on Brain Traffic
- Erin Kissane: Elements of Content Strategy, Contents May Have Shifted and Contents magazine and her blog
- Karen McGrane: Content Strategy for Mobile, Your Content, Now Mobile, Uncle Sam Wants You (to Optimize Your Content for Mobile), A separate mobile website: no forking way, Reader as User: Applying interface design techniques to the web, and her blog
- And here are some goodies from A List Apart and Luke Wroblewski
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