Nominations open for New Media Writing Prize Competition 2023

This international event is now in its 13th year and has attracted entries from the very best and most innovative writers in the field, from all around the world.

The Competition is organised by the New Media Writing Prize, with facilitation and sponsorship from the Bournemouth University Higher Education Corporation (BU) Faculty of Media and Communication, the University of Birmingham, One-to-One Development, Wonder box Digital, and FIPP Media.

Prize Details

• The winning work in each category will receive the following prize:
  • The Chris Meade Memorial UK New Media Writing Prize: £1000 donated by if: book UK/Chris Meade.
  • The Student Award: TBD.
  • The Opening Up Award: £500.
  • The Digital Journalism Award: £500 and a year’s FIPP membership.
  • The IDN for Social Good Award: £500.

What are they looking for?

• They are looking for good storytelling (fiction or non-fiction) written specifically for delivery and reading/viewing on a PC or Mac, the web, or a hand-held device such as an iPad or mobile phone. It could be a short story, novel, poem, narrative game, documentary, or transmedia work using words, images, film or animation with audience interaction. Interactivity is a key element of new-media storytelling.
• They are looking for creativity, so try to be imaginative to create an engaging story i.e. combining any number of media elements, such as words on a screen combined with images and video clips. New media writing can be created using a variety of tools i.e. a word processor, DV camera, social networking tools (i.e. twitter), mobile phones, a scanner, Augmented Reality software – anything goes!
• Criteria for all the categories:
  • Innovative use of new (digital) media/transmedia to create an engaging, satisfying fictional or non-fictional narrative, poem, or other story form.
  • Ease of accessibility for the reader/viewer.
  • Effective use of interactive elements.
  • A great example of how new media can do things traditional media can’t.
  • The potential to reach out to a wide audience (i.e. not just specialist interest groups).

Who can apply?

• The Competition is free and open to any person whatever their age or nationality. BU assumes that where an entrant is under 18, the entrant’s parents have consented to their entry in the Competition and their agreement to be bound by the Rules.
• Whether you’re a student, a professional, an artist, a writer, a developer, a designer or an enthusiast, the competition is open to all. It’s also an international competition, open to all outside the UK. Entries do need to be in English.

Ineligible

• They are not looking for a text-only story/poem which you simply upload to a web page or place on a disc.
• Non-interactive Word documents of PDFs are not eligible.
• They are not looking for screens of words uploaded to your blog, and they are not looking for a slideshow of photos uploaded to Flickr or a video uploaded to YouTube.
• The essence of new-media writing for us is great storytelling which uses anything and everything that digital media can offer, along with user/audience interactivity. It’s got to be something that couldn’t work in ‘old’ media.

For more information, visit New Media Writing Prize.