If you're working in a small or mid-sized newsroom, you know how hard it can be to carve out time for new skills. This workshop is built for your reality: techniques that work with tight deadlines, templates you'll actually use, and—here's the key—one-on-one coaching on your actual beat. Bring your stuck story. We'll unstick it.

Small newsrooms can do big things. You just need the right tools.

The workshop: Two 90-minute sessions packed with practical tools and hands-on learning. 

Week one: trust-building and interviewing techniques. 

Week two: observation methods and bias checks. Between sessions, try the tools on your beat. In session two, get personalized coaching on what worked and what didn't.

What you’ll take home: Templates, and a workbook filled with more to come back to and explore on your own time; plus a direct line to instructors when you hit a wall.

RJI is hosting our annual symposium for a cohort of 30 community-centered journalists who want to come together to share and create thoughtful and actionable ways to serve our communities better. This year we have an amazing co-host, Mirror Indy! We'll be having the symposium in their space in Indianapolis.

Note: this symposium is now full but you can apply to be added to the waiting list! 

Dates: Nov 13 & 14, 2025

Location: Mirror Indy, Indianapolis 

This experience is for those who want to take a couple days to thoughtfully brainstorm, build and collaborate together across newsrooms, roles, teams and organizations on ideas and solutions that can benefit us all.

This weekend will be considered off the record and conducted under Chatham House rules – you will be able to take anything away from it that will be helpful to your work and utilize it, but will be asked to not quote or reveal who it originated from unless they provide express permission.

This is an opportunity for us to take time to be critical and honest about the work we do, and how we can do it better in service to our communities.

Those accepted into this symposium will receive the following:

• A room at a local hotel for Nov 12-15 (arrival Nov 12, departure Nov 15) 
•  Lunch each day of the symposium
• A roundup of all the examples, resources and takeaways shared in the sessions + collaborative results of your work together
• Check-ins (with RJI & your symposium cohort) 3 and 6 months after the symposium to provide ongoing support + share results, challenges and takeaways
• A stipend to try a new idea you learned or developed at the symposium in your newsroom

We want you to attend if:

• You work in a community-centered role, org and/or newsroom
• You’re willing to be honest, open and think critically about your work and your newsroom in this space
• You want to collaborate, work together and share results transparently
• You want to try new-to-you methods of serving your community
• You want to listen to others and learn from their lived experiences
• Your newsroom/org & you are willing to commit to trying something you are exposed to at this symposium, (resources, ideas, methods) and being transparent about results in a published piece at rjionline.org

The topics of the sessions and the resources built from them will be participant-led and inspired, but everything will happen with guidance and support from RJI to ensure that actionable resources, activities and goals are incorporated into the weekend. We will be there to prompt, mediate and make sure every voice in the room is heard and included.

The Challenge

News influencers, newsfluencers or news creators - however you label them -  are  transforming how current events get shared and understood by the public. They build trust and reach with audiences who feel disconnected from traditional journalism and who prefer to consume information on social platforms. According to a report from the Pew Research Center, one in five Americans get their news from these news influencers, with a significantly higher percentage among adults under 30.

The Reuters 2025 Digital News Report highlighted this as one of the biggest trends this year, where “an accelerating shift towards consumption via social media and video platforms is further diminishing the influence of ‘institutional journalism’ and supercharging a fragmented alternative media environment containing an array of podcasters, YouTubers, and TikTokers.” 

This year’s challenge is to work with a local to you newsroom to help them embrace these current trends to expand their reach and relationships in their communities by working in collaboration with local influencers (we use the term ‘influencer’ here to mean anyone in the community with a strong connection to the community, trust, and platform where they share information - but they aren’t a journalist.) These projects should meet an information need in the community while building a collaborative relationship between trusted ‘influencer’ individuals and the newsroom. 

Read more about the challenge, rules and timeline.
 

Some resources to help student teams brainstorm ideas:

API’s guide to working with influencers

LMA article on need to know to collaborating with influencers

NPR how influencers are impacting journalism

Forbes how news influencers are reshaping media 

Pew Research what we know about TikTok Creators

Newsrooms & orgs who are interested in hosting a RJI Student Innovation Fellow for summer 2026 should apply below.
 

Fellowship Guidelines:
 

• RJI pays the student fellows directly a stipend for their summer work but you are allowed (and encouraged!) to pay them an hourly wage in addition to their stipend if you are able to do so. 
• The student fellow must work on 2-3 innovative projects/initiatives over the course of the summer which will be transparently shared with the journalism industry through articles they write for RJI. Students will not be doing traditional journalism reporting (writing articles, copy editing, covering daily stories etc) 
• The RJI articles on their innovative projects will be published through our Innovation in Focus series on rjionline.org and in the IIF newsletter.
• This application should be filled out by the mentor who is willing to work closely with the student supervising their work and taking part in our fellowship program by attending the required meetings, joining our shared slack space and communicating with RJI on their progress. 

Read more details here.

How do I apply?

Apply below.

Students: Applications close November 7, 2025. Students and will be notified by email about fellowship interviews by November 14, 2025.

What is a 2026 RJI Student Innovation Fellowship? 

A Mizzou journalism student placed with a news organization to work 30-40 hours per week in summer 2026. These fellowships are sponsored by RJI’s Palmer Innovation Endowment fund and the stipends are paid directly to the students.

These Fellowships are focused on projects that create, extend or build upon innovative work in each newsroom and transparently share that work with the industry by publishing articles through the Innovation in Focus series to help journalists learn from and emulate the innovative work.

Projects that are similar to past projects undertaken by Student Fellows and/or not very innovative will be less likely to be picked for a student match. We are looking for newsrooms who want to undertake projects that will be useful to other newsrooms in the journalism industry to learn from.

What do the student fellows receive?

Each student fellow receives a minimum stipend of $8000 and will be expected to work for 30–40 hours a week for 12 weeks, starting mid-May and ending mid-August. Organizations are allowed (and encouraged!) to supplement this stipend with hourly pay.

Payments from RJI are made in two parts directly to the student. Half the stipend is paid at the beginning of the fellowship (within 30 days after the fellowship start) and the second half is paid after all the student’s RJI deliverables are met.

How are org/newsrooms chosen?

These fellowships are designed for each student to work with a newsroom or journalism organization on innovative projects of mutual interest. Partner organizations are chosen based on their application answers, proposed projects and the availability of a student fellow whose interests match the skillsets needed for those projects.

How are students chosen?

All current and soon to be recently graduated Missouri School of Journalism students are eligible and encouraged to apply. Students are chosen based on the application, interview and the newsroom applications we receive. We look to make strong matches between student interests & skillsets and the innovative projects pitched by newsrooms.

Who supervises the student work?

The newsroom/org mentor will give the RJI Student Innovation Fellow regular feedback and provide guidance on projects at least 3 days a week whether in-person or remote. The mentor will also be the main point of contact with RJI on everything related to the fellowship and attend orientation and required zoom meetings.

RJI will meet with Student Fellows regularly prior to and then bi-weekly throughout the 3-month Fellowship to make sure they are learning, supported and achieving their goals. 

What am students required to produce for RJI?

Each student’s work will be highlighted in RJI’s Innovation in Focus series and newsletter. These 2-3 articles will be produced by the student fellow over the course of their fellowship to share their innovative project work and help other newsrooms implement the same innovation. 

How are the RJI Student Innovation Fellows chosen?

RJI’s Director of Innovation Kat Duncan and Innovation in Focus Editor Emily Lytle will choose up to 10 finalists to interview before awarding the fellowships.

Official page on RJIonline.org

This residential fellowship is for an individual who wants to spend a year at RJI to create a resource to help newsrooms and journalists. The fellow will collaborate with RJI staff, students and faculty on-site at our institute in Columbia, Missouri. They will get a monthly living stipend and have access to $100,000 in funding through the institute for project expenses. The end product will be a free, accessible and equitable resource that has been piloted across the country in community-centered newsrooms before the end of the fellowship.

Read more details here

Deadline: Feb 6, 2025

  Questions? Contact Director of Innovation, Kat Duncan duncank@rjionline.org

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute invites proposals from individuals and organizations who wish to partner with us on practical innovative projects for community-centered news. Chosen projects often include devising new strategies or models to solve a problem, building new tools, creating a training workshop/program or building resources for journalists. All fellowship projects are built and implemented within the span of the 8-month fellowship.

The final product of your fellowship must be a resource that journalists and newsrooms can utilize - whether it's a guide, toolkit, platform, workshop or tool. 

Read more about these fellowships.

Deadline: Feb 6, 2026

  Questions? Contact Director of Innovation, Kat Duncan duncank@rjionline.org