Call for Pitches — How Disinformation Impacts Ordinary Lives

On Spec Podcast
Season Three

For its third season, independent journalism podcast On Spec wants to explore how disinformation and fake news impact ordinary people’s lives.

Disinformation, misinformation, and fake news take different shapes in different countries but hurt the low-income and marginalized communities in dramatic ways. As governments around the world become more authoritarian, fake news becomes a tool to control and rule — whether by influencing voters ahead of elections, or by pitting them against each other. But it’s not just governments spreading lies. People from all backgrounds contribute, sometimes unwillingly, to disinformation campaigns.

On Spec wants to meet, engage and understand the people who spread fake news, and those who try to fight against it, then show how it impacts their communities. We’re particularly interested in stories related to climate change, the novel coronavirus, and women’s rights. We are commissioning three, 30-minute, character-driven, sound-rich audio stories where the reporter has a personal connection to the topic. The stories will be done from the field with in-person interviews (or in the safest way possible considering the pandemic). The reporter will be a character in the story, but also investigate the root of the disinformation and follow through with the impact on ordinary people, which may include data, analysis, and historical context. For this season, we have already accepted pitches from Hong Kong, India, Russia, and Turkey. So please no pitches from those countries. We prefer stories from the global South but are open to Western countries, if that’s where an issue is most prevalent.

On Spec is a half-hour program based in Istanbul that combines quality audio journalism from independent journalists, with a unique voice committed to rigorous on-the-ground reporting from around the world.

We’re a team of freelance journalists with knowledge of multiple languages and with expertise in broadcast, print, and digital journalism. On Spec’s goal is to take the listener on an intimate journey through the reporter’s lens, and to show people how global issues affect them locally across borders in various ways.

We will be compensating each story $1,000, and that includes expenses. One of our funders is the National Geographic Society.

Please send a 250-word pitch to onspecpodcast@gmail.com by August 15.

To learn more about the kinds of stories we’ve done, check out our website and listen to the audio stories on your favorite podcast platform. You can also find us on social media Twitter and Facebook and Instagram