October 1, 2002
Please Distribute Widely

This announcement appears online at:

http://www.narconews.com/scholarship1.html


The Narco News School of Authentic Journalism

Announces

SIX FULL SCHOLARSHIPS

(AND SOME PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIPS)

FOR A TEN-DAY WORKSHOP IN AUTHENTIC JOURNALISM

FEBRUARY 10 to 20, 2003

IN MERIDA YUCATÁN AND THE MEXICAN CARIBBEAN

Thanks to a grant from the Tides Foundation, six starting journalists and/or
journalism students will be chosen by Narco News to come to Mérida on the
Yucatán Peninsula of the Mexican Southeast in February 2003 for a ten-day
intensive workshop in authentic journalism by the makers and colleagues of
The Narco News Bulletin and the Mexican daily newspaper Por Esto!.

Scholarship winners will receive airfare to and from the seminar, food and
lodging, and will attend all events during the ten-day seminar for free.

PROGRAM

PART I:

WORK AS A JOURNALIST REPORTING FROM A GLOBAL NEWS EVENT

This seminar will include hands-on work by each student as a journalist:

Scholarship recipients will participate in Narco News' extensive online
coverage of the historic first-ever drug legalization conference with
participants from throughout América, North and South, titled OUT FROM THE
SHADOWS, hosted by the Autonomous University of Yucatán.

That event will take place February 12 through 15 in Mérida, capital of
Yucatán state, featuring former Colombian attorney general Gustavo de
Greiff, leaders of the coca growers unions in Bolivia, attorneys, scholars,
legislators and experts on drug policy from the drug war "hot spots" in our
hemisphere. The conference, like the seminar, will be bilingual: for Spanish
and English speakers alike. Scholarship students will cover these events as
reporters and publish their news stories and analysis on the
www.narconews.com online newspaper.

PART II:

SEASIDE SEMINARS

Then, beginning on February 16, students will attend participatory
discussions led by Narco News publisher Al Giordano with experienced
journalists and communicators. Sessions will be held in English and in
Spanish, with translation provided. Participants will tour the facilities of
Mexico's third-largest and fastest-growing daily newspaper, Por Esto!, speak
with editor-publisher Mario Menéndez, and the team of reporters and
photographers who documented large-scale cocaine trafficking activities on
the lands of Mexico's wealthiest banker.

Menéndez, Giordano and Narco News were victorious co-defendants in the "drug
war on trial" case in which the New York Supreme Court ruled in their favor
against Banamex-Citigroup and established a landmark legal precedent
extending the First Amendment protections of "Sullivan v. New York Times" to
Internet journalists.

The seminar will include presentations by First Amendment attorneys who
defended that historic case in the United States and in Mexico, and by
Internet pioneer John Gilmore of the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
including an analysis of how journalists, especially online journalists, can
make full benefit of the New York court's decision.

CONFIRMED FACULTY

Mario Menéndez Rodríguez -- Gary Webb -- Renán Castro Madera -- Annie
Harrison -- John Gilmore -- Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar -- Jeremy Bigwood --
Gustavo de Greiff -- Maria Botey Pascual -- Jules Siegel -- Peter Gorman --
Lisandro Coronado Alcocer -- Gonzálo Subirats García -- Maximilien Arvelaiz
-- Juan Ramírez -- Dave Borden -- Valerie Vande Panne -- Anthony Lappe --
Stephen Marshall -- Luis Gómez -- Dan Feder...

You can read more about them, see their photographs, and read about some
other invited guests at:

http://www.narconews.com/jschoolfaculty.html

Students and Faculty of our J-School will also attend one of Por Esto!
editor Mario Menéndez's Community Assemblies. Por Esto!, the third-largest
daily in Mexico, is the only daily in América that invites the public to
critique and advise the newspaper face to face with its publisher and staff.

We are contacting other important authentic journalists to invite them to
join our faculty. The list of faculty (above) is thus incomplete, subject to
change, and open to your suggestions, too.

Some of the faculty members have agreed to make their presentations barefoot
and in bathing suits on a sleepy Caribbean beach sipping cold liquids from
coconuts.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD TROUBLEMAKERS

The six scholarship recipients will be chosen by publisher Al Giordano in
consultation with our partners at Salón Chingón, the Narco News Team, the
Por Esto! News Team, and our Faculty, to find "the six biggest potential
journalistic troublemakers and truth-seekers on the planet," from a variety
of regions, languages (Spanish or English) and tendencies. Interest and
familiarity with the Narco News project, the authentic journalism movement,
Internet and other media, as well as possession of a writer or
communicator's "voice" and talent, a sense of humor, and a commitment to
authenticity in journalism and democracy will be weighed as positive, but
not exclusive, factors in reviewing applications and choosing the six
scholarship recipients. We will also consider the applicant's possibilities
of continuing to work with the Narco News project, or in other media,
reporting on the drug war in Latin América.

At a time when commercial journalism is in a state of crisis, we're looking
for a dream team help us cover an important news event - the first América
wide drug legalization conference - and to receive training in the craft and
ethics of authentic journalism as practiced by Narco News, Por Esto!, and
others we admire.

We also want very much to hear from journalism students and beginning
journalists what you think about the crisis of our profession and how to
best carry forward the Authentic Journalism Renaissance.

To receive an application form - it's due on November 15, 2002 - send an
email to salonchingon@hotmail.com

JOURNALISM IS ABOUT TAKING INITIATIVE, TOO

If you think you're part of the future of authentic journalism, use the
application form to persuade us that you ought to be one of the Authentic
Six.

Letters of recommendation (email only), inquiries and suggestions regarding
the Narco News Authentic Journalism Scholarships should be sent to our
colleagues at salonchingon@hotmail.com

If you are chosen for this scholarship part of your training will include
your own journalistic work as a Narco News correspondent reporting on,
interviewing the participants, and analyzing the OUT FROM THE SHADOWS
convention.

You'll receive private coaching, review, critique, and advice about your
work from experienced journalists on your faculty.

Likewise, you'll be covering your own journalism classes for Narco News -
reporting what the journalists, opinion-makers and students are saying about
the crisis of journalism in our times and potential solutions. There will
also be sessions on technical skills. Thus, you'll also be disseminating the
nuts-and-bolts basics of the training sessions to a larger body of readers.

Journalism is about persuasion and coherence, too: Just convince us, in
plain or creative language, using any form of media, that you're what we're
looking for when we want to point to somebody and say, "see, the Authentic
Journalism Renaissance is alive and well." Tell us what you think about how
the drug war in our América is reported, and what you personally would like
to do, journalistically, about it in 2003 and beyond. And tell us a little
bit about what you want to learn from experienced journalists and
communicators. That will help us design the program to the students' needs
and those of the readers who will be "taking the courses" online.

READ THE FINE PRINT

Distribute this announcement to potential scholarship recipients you know,
as well as at journalism schools, workplaces, and independent media
websites, publications and broadcasters. Applicants may be of any age or
experience level but must be fluent in either Spanish or English, and be
experienced in the use of email. Scholarships are open to print or online
journalists, and also to those working or studying in all forms of media,
broadly defined, including photojournalism, video-journalism, filmmaking,
long-form non-fiction writing, radio, and other means of communication.

Deadline for applications will be November 15th.

Winners will be informed on or near December 1st, and will be flown to and
from the Yucatán Peninsula as our guests from February 10 through 20, 2003.

Beyond the six winners of the scholarship, a yet to be determined number of
additional applicants will be invited to attend the seminar free, some with
partial scholarships.

The Narco News School of Authentic Journalism reserves the right to set all
terms of the program and to accept or reject participation by anyone for any
reason.

This event is a trade-free zone; a cultural exchange, not a moneymaker. Much
of the seminar will also be made available online at narconews.com free of
charge to the public and to authentic journalists and readers everywhere.

Deadline for applications: November 15, 2002


Read the Opening Remarks from Your College President:

http://www.narconews.com/jschoolopen.html


To receive an application, in English or in Spanish, send an email to:

salonchingon@hotmail.com


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