Fellowships will advance reporters’ coverage of aging in America

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) has received renewed grant support to welcome a 15th class of reporters for the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. The 2024 funders to date include Silver Century Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM).

Since its founding in 2010, this program has been responsible for more than 800 news stories produced by 231 alumni. It has two goals: to educate journalists about issues in aging, better allowing them to spread a new awareness to general-audience, ethnic, and other minority populations; and to disseminate information about new scientific findings, policy debates, innovations, and evidence-based solutions.

“We are grateful for the support of our partners in helping journalists tell accurate, fact-based stories about aging,” said Todd Kluss, GSA’s director of communications. “We consistently receive the highest positive feedback from our fellows on their experiences, and their work continues to have a positive impact in diverse communities nationwide.”

Kluss co-directs the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program together with veteran age-beat journalist Liz Seegert, who serves as program coordinator of the fellowship’s media partner, the Journalists Network on Generations.

“Age is so much more than just a number, and informing journalists about the many facets of aging is a key goal of this fellowship,” Seegert said. “We look forward to welcoming our next cohort of fellows to learn more about this fascinating and multi-dimensional topic.”

The program’s co-founder, Journalists Network on Generations National Coordinator Paul Kleyman, serves as senior advisor and editorial consultant.

As in previous years, half of the fellows will be selected from general-audience media and half from ethnic or other minority media outlets that serve communities within the U.S. Staff and freelance reporters and who are covering or wish to cover issues in aging are eligible to apply.

The program’s in-person activities will bring the fellows to GSA’s 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will take place from November 13 to 16 in Seattle, Washington, with the theme of “The Fortitude Factor.” There the fellows will participate in an exclusive educational workshop, which will showcase demographic trends and research highlights and include discussions with veteran journalists on how to position aging stories in the current media environment.

The fellowship requires reporters to deliver two projects based on current aging research, including a short-initial story and major piece or series in the following months. All applications for the fellowship program will be reviewed by a selection committee of gerontologists and editorial professionals. The criteria will include clarity and originality of proposed in-depth story projects; quality of samples of published or produced work; and high-impact potential of proposals geographically and across different ethnic or racial populations. The application deadline is Friday, July 12.

###

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,500+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure includes a nonpartisan public policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and GSA is also home to the National Center to Reframe Aging and the National Coordinating Center for the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.

The Journalists Network on Generations, founded in 1993, is based in San Francisco. It links to over 1,000 journalists, authors, and producers on issues in aging, and publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org).