The EPIC project
The EPIC (Expanding Production of Independent Content) project is fundamentally aimed at supporting the production and dissemination of high quality, credible, engaging and innovative fact-based multimedia journalistic content that addresses issues of public interest to Romanian communities. It is implemented by the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ), with the support of Internews, and runs from January 2023 to February 2026.
Project goals
1: The production and dissemination of credible, high-quality content across all platforms, addressing important issues for local communities and countering misinformation.
2: Improving cross-border content production and contextualising national stories in regional perspectives, as well as better connecting media and audiences in the target countries.
Research: assessing the Romanian media sector
- a rapid needs assessment meant to identify critical gaps in content provision (types and formats of content currently lacking; audience groups in urgent need of reliable information; groups of content producers in urgent need of support; and themes and topics of public interest not receiving adequate coverage),
- an analysis of ‘hot topics’ for identifying issues of interest to local audiences that could be used by manipulative actors to misinform, for example in relation to the war in Ukraine and its regional ramifications.
Creating a content strategy
On the basis of the documents resulting from the Romanian media sector research, the CIJ will develop an editorial policy specific for Romania, which:
1) outlines editorial priorities and approaches and
2) defines the requirements and selection processes for the participants who will receive support for content production.
CIJ will also develop an editorial plan specific for Romania, which will define what the project intends to achieve in Romania in terms of content production and will serve as a guide for each partner producing content. The plan will highlight relevant themes and topics and provide a menu of potential story leads and angles against which participating content producers will present their own ideas. This editorial plan will be a living document, seen as a guideline and a starting point, as 2023 and 2024 will be two of the most complicated years for Romania: 2024 is an electoral year, with local, parliamentary, presidential and European elections taking place in the same year.
Grants for editorial projects
CIJ intends to support editorial projects or journalistic series that aim to document and report on topics of local and national public interest. Funding will be given to editorial projects proposed by local/regional newsrooms, including Hungarian-language newsrooms, regardless of their size, small alternative media outlets with national coverage and freelance journalists.
The use of interactive content will be encouraged as well as the adaptation of journalistic information to the specifics of social media (e.g. through the use of clips such as shorts, reels, stories) should serve to expand the audience of young and very young people. This need is easily justified: in 2024, Romania will go through four rounds of elections and more than one million young people will vote for the first time, which means that informing them through quality journalism is essential.
Applicants will choose the themes and topics of journalistic materials produced as part of the projects proposed for funding, but it is mandatory that these thematic areas meet two needs: 1. to address current issues of public interest; 2. to serve the need for public information in an objective and relevant manner, fostering the fight against misinformation (especially when it comes to communities which are directly affected by this phenomenon).
Grants for cross-border editorial projects
The CIJ will support the production of cross-border content for local/regional newsrooms, including Hungarian-language newsrooms of all sizes, small alternative media outlets with national coverage and freelance journalists interested to bring international stories and angles to local audiences.
The CIJ will help content producers send a team of reporters to another country to produce material or for them to collaborate with other content production partners on a cross-border story.
It will bring together content partners in Romania with Internews’ team of experts so that their collaborative content can reach a wider audience.
More about the call for cross-border editorial projects here.
The winners of the EPIC cross-border editorial projects contest here.
About Internews
Internews is a non-profit, non-partisan international organisation with over 40 years of experience in media development. It supports independent journalism in more than 100 countries around the world, helping local media tackle journalistic issues and achieve financial sustainability.
