Base Camp 2018

The Brown Institute for Media Innovation invites you to apply to the Media Innovation Base Camp taking place on March 3-4, 2018 at Stanford University. The Media Innovation Base Camp offers a great starting point for entrepreneurial students who want to explore the interplay between story and technology. All travel and lodging expenses will be covered by the Brown Institute.

The topic for Base Camp 2018 is Media Literacy and Transparency. We will assemble a cohort of up to 8 students from each campus who will work in mixed teams (with representation from both journalism and engineering) to address different aspects of this topic. In an era when Facebook can change its News Feed overnight, or sites like Twitter allow coordinated activity to provide people outsized voices on the network, the platforms many of us rely on for our news are fragile and easily gamed. What can we do to encourage a robust “media ecology”? How can we help people better understand the origins and truthfulness of the information they receive?

Our goal at Base Camp is to introduce students to a design process, with a goal of prototyping an new idea that might lead to a one-year “Magic Grant” project (read about the Brown Institute’s Magic Grant program here). Brown Institute Fellows, industry experts, and faculty will be on hand to provide feedback, guidance, and support. You don’t need to have a fleshed-out idea to apply for these events — the Base Camp is designed to give you space to develop your ideas collaboratively. That said, you do need to demonstrate an expressed interest in the topic.

Selected participants will partake in one or two small priming exercises prior to the event to help lay the groundwork for more informed interactions during the actual event. These could take the form of paired conversations via Skype or Hangout, assigned readings or diarying exercises, suggested museum or site visits, or bicoastal lectures.

2-Day Program Outline

Day 1 – Morning: Group & Project Identification
Day 1 – Afternoon: Prototyping
Day 2 – Morning: Prototyping
Day 2 – Afternoon: Project Presentations and Brown Institute Overview Presentation

Application Details

In your application, you must provide the following:

• Current Résumé/CV
• Academic Transcript (current for Stanford students; undergraduate for Columbia students)
• The theme of this year’s Base Camp is “Media Literacy and Transparency.” Explain your interest in the topic. (500 word max)
• Base Camp is an exercise in interdisciplinary collaboration. Explain your experience and interest in working in multi-disciplinary teams. (300 word max)

Application Deadline: January 30, 2018

Applications are holistically reviewed by a panel consisting of the Brown Institute staff and other faculty members, a process that thoroughly considers each candidate’s interests, academic qualifications, and background/prior experiences. If you submit a project idea, we will evaluate it as an example of your interests and your desire to collaborate.  

Apply at brwn.co/basecamp2018