The Bournemouth University Higher Education Corporation in the United Kingdom, through its Faculty of Media and Communication, is calling for entries for the 2017 awards of the New Media Writing Prize.
The Prize organised in partnership with if:book UK, unicorn, Gorkana and others is meant to celebrate innovative, interactive and immersive creativity. It encourages and promotes the best in new media writing and is leading the way toward the future of the ‘written’ word and storytelling.
The awards for 2017 has four prize categories as follows:
- The if:book New Media Writing Prize of £1000 donated by if:book UK.
- The Unicorn Student Prize which includes 3 months paid internship, or £500 in cash if the winner cannot undertake the placement, at Unicorn Training, Bournemouth, UK, working with Unicorn’s writing and design team.
- The Dot Award of £500 to develop a new project, donated by if:book UK.
- The Gorkana Journalism Award, donated by Gorkana which has two awards: the UK award, and the International award, both £500 for the winner.
For more information on the requirements for each of the prizes, visit the official website and refer to the FAQs page for responses to frequently asked questions.
The deadline for the if:book Prize, Gorkana Journalism Awards, and Dot Award entries is November 24, 2017 while the deadline for the Unicorn Student Prize is December 15, 2017.
Each entry for the if:book, and Unicorn Student prizes should be submitted by email to entries2017@newmediawritingprize.co.uk. Entries for the Dot Award should be sent to chris@ifbook.co.uk while entries for the Gorkana Journalism Awards are to be sent to gorkana@newmediawritingprize.co.uk.
Each emailed entry should contain an active URL for the judges to access submitted works. However, if the entry is for viewing on a mobile phone, wearable, or other electronic device, applicants are required to provide clear instructions on how to view.
It is essential that entries include the word MAIN, STUDENT, DOT, or JOURNALISM in the subject line of the email, to show which award(s) they are to be considered for. Students can submit to all of the categories; shortlisted journalistic pieces are also considered for the Main prize.
Entries for all categories must be in English. Anyone, including students, professionals, artists, writers, developers, designers or enthusiasts can apply as the competition is open to all including those outside the UK.
The Competition Rules are available here. It is important to read and understand the Competition Rules as entries will be disqualified if they do not comply with these Rules.
Entries should not be:
- Text-only story/poem uploaded to a web page or on a disc
- Screens of words uploaded to your blog
- Slideshow of photos uploaded to Flickr
- Video uploaded to YouTube.
The essence of new-media writing is great storytelling which uses anything and everything that digital media can offer, along with user/audience interactivity. It has to be something that can’t work in ‘old’ media.
Each entry should contain the following information within the text of the entry email:
- Title of the work
- Entrant’s contact details: name, email address, telephone number and postal address. For joint entries, all entrants’ contact details must be provided with identification of the main entrant for contact purposes;
- Entrant’s short autobiography (50-100 words). For joint entries, all entrants must provide their autobiographies.
- Entrants who wish to submit a work for the Student Prize must provide a proof of identity which should be displayed in the body of the entry email, e.g. a scan copy of entrant’s Student Union ID card or university enrolment number, which will be authenticated at the organiser’s discretion.
Shortlisted entrants will be invited to the Awards Ceremony on January 17, 2018 at Bournemouth University. Winners will be announced at the ceremony.
