About the Program

Plagued by the twin challenges of a slow economy and digital disruption, many U.S. news organizations are cutting back on foreign coverage and are shrinking their editorial staffs.

But journalists can play an essential role in raising awareness around international social justice issues, including women’s rights, corruption, human trafficking, poverty, religious tolerance, environmental issues, migration and education.

It is with this in mind that ICFJ announces the Social Justice Reporting for a Global America Program, sponsored by the Ford Foundation.

Over the years, journalists of color have had few opportunities to work as foreign correspondents. That’s especially the case in today’s media environment, with sharp cutbacks by many news outlets in their international coverage. At the same time, communities of color rarely receive coverage of global issues that directly affect their lives, from the migration of jobs overseas to wars fought by minorities serving in the U.S. military.

As a Knight Health Journalism Fellow, Sunday Dare created an eight-page weekly health section at Daily Trust, the most widely read newspaper in northern Nigeria.

Working with a team of dedicated health reporters, he increased health coverage at the newspaper from an average of eight stories per month to 27, with in-depth and investigative stories on issues such as AIDS, cancer, cholera, polio, public health facilities, and Lassa fever, a fatal disease carried by rats.

In a country where independent television is proliferating, Knight International worked with broadcast journalists at a leading network to make their reports more timely and compelling. By adding more stories from the field and reducing reliance on single sources, Fellow Adnan Adil Zaidi revitalized the newsroom at ARY OneWorld, now renamed ARY News.