DISCOURSE MEDIA ANNOUNCES ENERGY POVERTY JOURNALISM FELLOWS

MONDAY, JANUARY 18

Discourse Media collaborates with nine journalist fellows from around the world to report on energy poverty. This collaborative multimedia series will examine systemic issues driving energy poverty around the world, and potential paths forward.

Discourse Media has selected the finalists for the Access to Energy Journalism Fellowship (AEJF) — a project aimed at enabling critical, deep reporting on energy poverty globally.

Journalists Elias Ntungwe Ngalame, Andrew Mambondiyani, Deepak Adhikari, Faisal Mahmud, Eric Bombicino, Christopher Pollon, Mike Ives, Fabiola Ortiz, and Felix Gaedtke will report on energy access throughout Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Nepal, Bangladesh, Canada (x2), Kiribati, Mexico and Romania, respectively. 

By supporting these journalists to report on the issue in their region, AEJF aims to deepen energy poverty reporting on the local level. By then bringing those reports together on a global platform in the form of a multimedia series, it will also paint a global picture of the energy poverty landscape, and examine what potential solutions exist. 

“This is a huge opportunity to draw together an international body of reporting on what has long been an under-reported issue,” says Christopher Pollon, a Vancouver-based journalist and Fellow who will also be acting as senior AEJF Editor. “More than anything else, it’s a chance to spark a global conversation about what needs to change.” 

The project builds on Discourse Media’s background of large-scale multimedia journalism projects that take a critical, yet solutions-oriented approach to reporting, and that leverage collaborations amongst journalists, media outlets and institutions. 

The AEJF is supported by the WGSI. WGSI’s current initiatives are centred around the question: How can we use the latest science and solar technology to decrease our reliance on non-renewable energy sources and improve the well-being of the energy isolated? To respond to a gap in media discourse around the issue of energy access globally, Discourse Media created the AEJF project concurrent with the leadup to WGSI’s OpenAccess Energy Summit, which takes place in April.

“Today, the energy access conversation is not framed in a way that promotes problem solving,” said Julie Wright, General Manager of WGSI. “By facilitating deep reporting that cuts across disciplines and beats, we believe Discourse Media’s Access to Energy Journalism Fellowship will bring much needed nuance to the global dialogue around this complex issue.” Simply selling more solar panels and building large scale solar farms is not the answer to global problems. We need to talk about getting energy to those who need it most, whether it comes from renewables like solar technology or other sources.

WGSI’s support of the project does not imply endorsement of or influence over the content produced. 

Contacts:

Discourse Media Christopher Pollon
christopher@discoursemedia.org
+1 604 446 3124

Waterloo Global Science Initiative Julie Wright
jwright@wgsi.org
+1 519 569 7600 ext 7613