Although we believe it essential, we also recognize that poverty coverage presents unique obstacles for the professional journalist.  The Knight Poverty Journalism Initiative seeks to partner with reporters to overcome these obstacles by sponsoring the Knight Poverty Journalism Initiative Story Awards, a contest born as an offshoot of its inaugural conference in September.  The contest offers $500 and publishing support to three journalists who want to write a story covering U.S. poverty.
Interested?  Look over the following information:
 
Knight Poverty Journalism Initiative

On Sept. 7, the onPoverty team will be hosting our first annual conference, “The New American Poverty: Reporting the Recession’s Impact.”  Roughly 50 distinguished journalists from across the country will join us for three days on the Washington and Lee campus in Lexington, Va., where we’ll discuss the unique demands and opportunities afforded to poverty journalism in the shadow of the 2007 recession.
We’re hopeful this inaugural conference, part of the Knight Poverty Journalism Initiative, will be an important step towards the

As in any other playoff, candidate rhetoric let loose during the U.S. presidential race can be boisterous. We’ve held a front row seat to the 2012 showdown for over a year, with tensions still rising as the general election looms nearer. Some of the barbs launched along the campaign trail have been laughable: Newt Gingrich’s television ad incriminating Mitt Romney for his ability to speak French comes to mind. Others are not. The dialogue surrounding U.S. poverty and inequality, two

Ron Scherer is a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor, where he has worked for 36 years. Previously, he worked for U.S. News & World Report and United Press International, and wrote for The Armored Sentinel at the U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, where he served during the Vietnam War.
Scherer spoke with OnPoverty about his favorite poverty-related stories, how the digital age has affected poverty coverage at the Monitor, and what he hopes the future holds for poverty coverage in the media.
 
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