The fifth annual Taco Kuiper Award for investigative journalism – the country’s richest journalism prize – is now open for entries.

The award celebrates outstanding examples of investigative journalism published or broadcast by South African media during the previous calendar year.

The 2009 award went to Rob Rose of Financial Mail/Sunday Times for “South Africa’s Madoff”, a series of articles on South Africa’s biggest corporate swindle. Second prize was Carte Blanche for “Chicken Run”. Previous years’
winners include the Daily Dispatch, Beeld/Burger and Mail & Guardian.

Taco Kuiper was a South African publisher who left a significant part of his estate to be used for the promotion of investigative journalism. His Valley Trust has partnered with Wits Journalism to organise the award and distribute grants to promote investigative journalism.

The award is open to print or broadcast journalists or teams of journalists who can enter a single story or a series of related stories dealing with events and issues affecting South Africa, published or broadcast during 2010. The winner will receive a whopping R200 000 cash prize and the runner-up R100 000.

Nominations should be made by editors or through the Taco Kuiper nominators; guidelines and an application form are available at www.journalism.co.za/tacokuiper

Deadline for entries is Friday 25 February 2011 at 2pm with the Award ceremony taking place on 15 April 2011.

For more information contact the Awards co-ordinator, Brigitte Read, at Brigitte.Read@wits.ac.za

In addition to these prizes, Taco Kuiper Grants are available to encourage investigative journalism in South African print media. More information is available at www.journalism.co.za/tacokuiper.

Ruth First Fellowship – call for applications
Ruth First was a journalist, activist and intellectual killed in exile by the apartheid government. To commemorate her contribution to critical, independent, socially–engaged writing, the Ruth First Fellowship Committee and Wits Journalism has established
a 3–6 month fellowship.

The fellowship is intended to allow a journalist, writer, academic researcher or photographer to pursue an in–depth project of original research to be published in any medium. It should be groundbreaking and in keeping with the tradition of Ruth
First’s politically and socially relevant journalism.

For 2011 candidates are asked to propose a subject which addresses a theme of current interest in South Africa and which would have engaged Ruth First. Job creation, climate change,
local government or corruption are all possible fields, but other subjects may also be appropriate. Guidelines are available at www.journalism.co.za/ruth-first-fellowship. Fellows will receive a monthly stipend and research costs. They must be resident
in South Africa. They will be expected to present their work at the annual Ruth First Memorial Lecture in August and to submit it for publication/broadcast in an appropriate outlet.

Applicants should submit their CV and a project proposal (of no more than two pages) by 4 March 2011 to the Ruth First Fellowship Committee, by email at ruthfirstlecture@gmail.com or fax 011 717 4694.

Are you making New Year’s resolutions?
Here are a few to consider if you want to give your career a boost in 2011.

1. Update my contact book: Whether it’s an electronic file or a reliable hardcover, make sure your contacts are updated. Use New Year greetings to reconnect with old sources or connect with new. Delete old numbers; add new ones and make sure you have all the useful detail you need. Search engines are a great resource for contact details but do you have all the essential ones you need if – heaven forbid! – you had no internet access?
2. Update my diary: Review your stories from 2010 to update the essential dates on your diary for story ideas. Use technology to set reminders so that big days in your specialist beat don’t catch you unprepared.
3. Review the Press Code of Professional Conduct: When last did you review your sector’s press code? You can find the South African print media press code here and the broadcasting code here.
4. Review my organisation’s style guide: Does your organization have a style guide? Use the slow start to the year to ensure you know the basic guidelines on your style and update yourself on any 2010 changes … the sub-editors will thank you for that.
5. Start collecting story ideas: Resolve to be an ideas reporter not an assigned reporter. What issues are people talking about? What stories were you not able to tell last year? Whether you use an electronic file or a good old-fashioned filing system, get into the habit of collecting story ideas for slow news days.
6. Make a list of stories to follow-up in 2011: What stories were covered in 2010? Are there untold elements? What promises were made which should be followed up? Which stories should be revisited?
7. Show, don’t tell: It’s an old adage but good reporters tell their stories with detail and through the voices of other people. Take your readers, listeners and viewers to the story…
8. Do a spellcheck: Reviewing your story represents one step in professional self-editing. A spellcheck is a great way to make initiate a final review … make sure its UK and not US spelling.
9. Identify my own strengths and weaknesses: Good writers and reporters know their own strengths and weaknesses. Use your strengths wisely to the benefit of your work and take action to eliminate your reporting and writing weaknesses.
10. Update and refresh my skills: You don’t need to go to a training course… find resources on the Internet, invite an expert to give a lunchtime talk in your newsroom, ask the reporter you most admire how they found their last story. Opportunities for learning are all around you. Check out www.poynter.org for some good advice. You can download the Narrative Writing Journals from www.frayintermedia.com
11. Read: good writers are good readers.