The McCormick Foundation has awarded a $120,000 grant to USC Annenberg's Institute for Justice and Journalism (IJJ) for a two-part fellowship program for ethnic media journalists, focusing on news coverage of urban environmental justice.

The fellowships will explore the intersections between economic equity and environmental justice and help participating journalists dig deeper into a variety of issues, including health effects, jobs and economic development, IJJ director Steve Montiel said.

As with previous IJJ fellowships, the 10 selected Fellows will complete an in-depth reporting project that will draw from the program experience. The completed work, which will be featured on IJJ's Web site (http://www.justicejournalism.org), will help inform both policymakers and the public about significant issues relating to environmental justice, Montiel said.

An announcement about the application process, open to ethnic media journalists in the United States, will be made in November.

The opening program, in March 2009, will bring 20 journalists to Los Angeles - 10 Fellows and their editors or news directors - for a week of in-depth discussions with experts. Workshop sessions at the will be conducted at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism on computer-assisted reporting skills and multimedia techniques. Varied field reporting experiences will give the journalists an on-the-ground perspective at issues in Los Angeles, and reporting and analytical tools will help them assess conditions in their own cities.

They also will participate in a one-day Justice and Journalism "immersion" conference on the intersections between economic and environmental justice. The conference will be open to other journalists and the public.

The program's second part is scheduled for May 2009 in Chicago, with up to 10 Chicago journalists joining the ethnic media Fellows. The participants will take part in reviews of the Fellows' projects, as well as field reporting, professional development workshops and in-depth discussions with experts.

The fellowship program design will draw heavily from IJJ's 2008 Ethnic Media Fellowship program on immigration. That program also was funded by the McCormick Foundation.

IJJ, created with Ford Foundation funding, was established at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in 2000 to strengthen journalism about issues involving justice and injustice.