Selection and Eligibility
Journalists from the Hispanic/Spanish-language or English-language media will be selected. Journalists with a proven record of covering personal finance or business issues from the print, radio, television or on-line media are eligible to participate. The program will be conducted primarily in Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation for non-Spanish speakers.
The Personal Finance Reporting Program is competitive, and participants are selected and recruited according to several criteria:
- Al least 3 years of experience as a journalist;
- For the workshop in New York City, journalists covering the NYC metro area. For the workshop in Washington, D.C., journalist covering the Washington area, including the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia.
- Strong commitment to reporting issues related to personal finance or business and its impact in the Hispanic community and abroad;
- A spirit of adventure and a curiosity about the link between personal finance issues and the development of local communities; and
- Enthusiasm for and understanding of the mission of the training program.
The seminar portion of the program will include:
- Informational sessions featuring experts on personal finance topics, such as mortgages, consumer finance, investing, debt management and benefits, etc.;
- Training sessions on what service journalism is and how the audience should have a practical “take-away” from each story (from the use of graphics to a look at humanizing finance stories through using personal stories to illustrate the issues.)
- Panel discussions about current issues such as how fraud is affecting the Latino community: Auto buying vs. leasing, college loans, rent-to-own schemes for household goods, advance-fee loans, identity theft, and other forms of fraud targeting immigrants;
- Field trips to financial institutions, credit-reporting agencies, or regulatory bodies;
- Visits to non-profit institutions developing programs to improve personal finance literacy in the Latino community;
- Discussions of journalism ethics while covering personal finance issues, including such topics as anonymous sources, fairness and balance, and conflict of interest;
- Brainstorming sessions on stories the participants will pursue during the reporting phase of the program.
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