EJN releases Earth Shorts 2025 Fellowship for Social Media Influencers and Journalists in South and Southeast Asia

Following the success of the pilot in the Philippines, the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) is launching Earth Shorts 2025, a regional fellowship for social media storytellers and journalists in South and Southeast Asia. The program aims to bridge the gap between environmental reporting and digital storytelling, encouraging the production of compelling, evidence-based stories about issues related to biodiversity.

Applications are welcome for 20 fellowships—10 for online content creators and 10 for media professionals—from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other regional countries. A US$2,000 grant will be awarded to the fellow to produce at least five short videos on biodiversity for social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.

The initiative arrives in a fast-changing media world, where news is being consumed on social media by wider audiences, and disinformation on green issues, particularly climate change and biodiversity, continues to spread. Earth Shorts 2025 seeks to mobilize journalists and influencers to produce impactful, fact-checked, and innovative online content to get people on the most urgent environmental issues.

The fellowship will begin in September 2025 and will involve a three-day online workshop training to cover such issues as biodiversity science, storytelling methodology, AI tools, misinformation combat tactics, and audience engagement methodology. Continuing mentorship and peer-learning sessions concluding in a closing event in March 2026 will be offered to chosen fellows.

For eligibility, the creators must have a following of 20,000–200,000 individuals and be producing content on civic or lifestyle problems on a regular basis, and journalists must be reporting on stories on biodiversity and having social media presence in public space on a regular basis. All content must be produced in local languages with English subtitles as an added value.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to present pitches and supporting materials in English before the selection of programs in August 2025. The chosen works will be published on EJN websites, where producers will be invited to acknowledge EJN support by utilizing the hashtag #EarthShorts. 

Apply and learn more at earthjournalism.net.