Applications are now being accepted for the 2024 Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) Student Innovation Competition.

The 2024 Challenge is to develop a tool that will allow a newsroom to assess the effect of its news coverage on the community. Traditional metrics like clicks, views, or visits should not be used to quantify an impact; instead, focus on how the news actually affects the communities it serves.

The Challenge

• Create a tool to measure the impact of news coverage on a community, focusing on real-life journalism benefits.
• Teams can create low or high tech products, apps, events, or widgets.
• Develop a plan for implementing the idea over three months, detailing steps, milestones, and success measures.
• The selection committee will choose finalists based on planning, potential success, and creative thinking.

Judging criteria

Projects will be judged on five main criteria:

1. Idea: How did the team come up with the idea? Was it based on research, data and other factors to decide the community need and the feasibility?
2. Implementation: Did the project get implemented, meet the planned milestones and overcome the hurdles it encountered?
3. Measuring success: Was the project implementation successful? How did the team measure impact and success?
4. Reach: Was the idea created with attention to diversity, equity and accessibility for the community? Could the idea be replicable and applicable in more communities and newsrooms across the country?
5. Sustainability: Is the idea sustainable after the competition? Was it built and implemented in a manner that supports continued management, revenue and/or growth?

Application:

Only applications that adhere to the provided guidelines, including all required information submitted via the application form, will be considered.

Don't miss the application deadline, which is 16 October 2023.