A Ghanaian digital media producer and head of the digital strategy for the Tiger Eye Social Foundation, a media nonprofit, Selase Kove-Seyram has been named one of the 2022 Nieman Foundation Fellows for Journalism at Harvard University.
Kove-Seyram @selasekove and 21other fellows from across the globe were selected for the one-year on-campus study at the centre internationally recognized for its fellowships, publications and programs.
During the fellowship, he will study how collaborative efforts to produce public service journalism could enhance professionalism, fight misinformation and help restore public trust in journalism in West Africa.
The Accra-based multimedia producer is a photographer, freelance journalist, and member of the production team for Africa Investigates, an investigative documentary series on Al Jazeera English.
An alumnus of Columbia University, New York, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Central University College and Ghana Institute of Journalism, Kove-Seyram is a digital content producer with 10 years of experience across editorial and commercial fields.
The only African fellow on the list describes himself as a storyteller who uses a combination of words, intuition, photographs, video, audio and interactive graphics where necessary.
“I love deep conversations, I believe each person’s life is vivid with colour in a special way and leaving a positive mark behind is a noble aspiration for humanity”
He specializes in the production of investigative current affairs documentaries, many of which involve secret filming and dogged investigations in different environments.
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Kove-Seyram has worked the New York Times, ZAM magazine (Netherlands), the Caravan (India), Uptown magazine (USA), Al Jazeera, Stink TV(UK), CBS (New York), Quartz, Insight TWI, IBM, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Medtronic, Pyxera Global, Tullow oil and Rada Film Groups.
Reacting to his selection for the fellowship, Kove-Seyram said tweeted “I’m thrilled to be joining the class of 2022 as a Nieman Fellow at @Harvard Special thanks to @niemanfdn for this incredible opportunity; to @hofrench @dapsyoly and @anasglobal for the constant professional support. To my colleagues, friends and family: love, always.”
The other Nieman Fellows and their study plans are as follows:
Caelainn Barr, an Irish journalist and the data projects editor at The Guardian in London, will study how missing data in reporting can perpetuate inequality and underrepresentation in journalism. She will examine how news organizations can build and better use data to report on marginalized communities.
@caelainnbarr
Bill Barrow, a national political reporter based in Atlanta for The Associated Press, will examine the intersection of movement and party politics in the United States, focusing on the institutional structures and prevailing social dynamics that are reshaping Democratic and Republican alliances in the early 21st century.
@BillBarrowAP
Jorge Caraballo Cordovez, a Colombian journalist and growth editor at Radio Ambulante, NPR’s only podcast in Spanish, will develop a toolkit for narrative journalism podcasts in Latin America, seeking to leverage the power of audio storytelling to strengthen community connections.
@jorgecaraballo
Choy Yuk-ling (Bao Choy), an investigative journalist based in Hong Kong, will study how independent and investigative news outlets can evolve in order to survive the financial, legal and political roadblocks set up by authoritarian governments.
@Baochoy
Pranav Dixit, a New Delhi-based technology correspondent for BuzzFeed News, will examine the evolution of the American tech press, its lessons for global media, and how newsrooms in developing countries can more effectively cover the intersection of technology, culture and democracy.
@PranavDixit
Reuben Fischer-Baum, a graphics editor at The Washington Post, will collect lessons from the field to explore how to make interactive journalism more accessible to small newsrooms and help reproduce the audience growth that major news organizations have seen with this form of storytelling.
@ReubenFB
Fu Ting, a Chinese journalist reporting for The Associated Press from Thailand, will research China’s global expansion, domestic living standards and ongoing brain drain in the face of an economic slowdown that follows years of rapid growth. She will examine how the country and the wider world are addressing the downturn and the resulting social challenges.
@FuTingBJ
Sammy Jo Hester, the lead photo editor for sports at the Los Angeles Times, will examine the intersection of gender and athletics, with a focus on the media’s role in perpetuating the ways women are seen and represented in athletics.
@sammyjohester
Patricia Laya, the Venezuela bureau chief for Bloomberg News, will study Venezuela’s economic, sociopolitical and health crises as tools of oppression and how the country’s authoritarian government has benefitted from a population subdued by hunger, misery and disease.
@PattyLaya
Felice León, a video producer and presenter at The Root, will study the manifestations of Black joy, from the antebellum era to the present, and the ways that the media can document these stories through visual storytelling.
@_FeliceLeon
Julia Lurie, a senior reporter at Mother Jones, will study the complex history of the U.S. child welfare system. She will examine the system’s racial and socioeconomic inequities, the impact of the movement for racial justice on reform efforts and the effects of the overdose epidemic and the coronavirus pandemic on families in the system.
@julia_lurie
Pacinthe Mattar, a Canadian journalist based in Toronto, will study how journalism can better foster, retain and promote Black, Indigenous and other racialized journalists. She will focus on developing initiatives that lead to more representative newsrooms and coverage. Mattar is the 2022 Martin Wise Goodman Canadian Nieman Fellow.
@Pacinthe
Dave Mayers, a producer and cinematographer at Vice News, will study the barriers to entry for those wishing to diversify documentaries, and the best methods for overcoming them domestically and internationally.
@davemayers
Shereen Marisol Meraji, co-host and senior producer of NPR’s “Code Switch,” a podcast that covers race and identity, will explore ways for public media to attract and retain Latino audiences.
@RadioMirage
Jakob Moll, co-founder and former CEO of Zetland, a membership-based digital newspaper in Denmark, will study how trust evolves on the preferred digital platforms of the younger generations, and how those dynamics can help support the membership business model for news organizations.
@JakobMoll
Marisa Palmer, a senior video producer at Business Insider, plans to study the effects of police training programs in the U.S. and will develop a database for journalists, communities and police departments that ranks the programs by quality, efficacy and accessibility.
@marisa_palmer
Deb Pastner, director of photo and multimedia at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, will examine how the racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s death has altered the relationship between photojournalists and their subjects. She will explore ways to reframe and renew that association.
@debpastner
Jonathan Rabb, founder of Watch The Yard, a digital platform for Black college students and alumni, will examine the use of virtual reality for journalism, with a focus on creating ethical and inclusive practices when using 360-degree video technologies to cover marginalized groups. As a 2021 Nieman Visiting Fellow, he researched revenue models for minority-owned media companies.
@jonathanrabb
Gabrielle Schonder, a producer and reporter for “Frontline” and the Kirk Documentary Group, will study innovations in reporting methods for documentary filmmakers and examine the intersection of media, technology and policy to find ways to combat distrust and misinformation.
Jim Urquhart, a Colorado-based photojournalist who reports from across the U.S., will strengthen his understanding of the rapid rise of right-wing extremism, studying the history of far-right violence and the writings and political and social concepts that inspire militants.
@jimurquhartpixs
Natalia Viana, co-founder and executive director of Agência Pública, Brazil’s first nonprofit investigative journalism outlet, will study the erosion of democracy in Brazil and Latin America and the rise of far-right movements focus on media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.
@VianaNatalia
The journalists will focus their work on some of the most urgent issues facing the industry, ranging from racial justice to disinformation.
Learn more about the 2022 Nieman Fellows.
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard educates leaders in journalism, promotes innovation and leadership initiatives and elevates the standards of the profession. In addition to its fellowship program, the foundation publishes Nieman Reports, a website and print magazine that covers thought leadership in journalism; Nieman Lab, a website that reports on the future of news, innovation and best practices in the digital media age; and Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling.
