{"id":6370,"date":"2021-01-05T08:16:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-05T13:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6370"},"modified":"2021-01-05T20:56:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T01:56:54","slug":"journalists-in-aging-fellows-program-the-story-behind-the-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2021\/01\/journalists-in-aging-fellows-program-the-story-behind-the-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalists in Aging Fellows Program: The Story behind the Grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the late 2000s, boomers\u2014almost 80 million strong in America\u2014were beginning to retire. And the media was beginning to notice.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Google News search for \u201cbaby boomers\u201d shows 290 articles published in 2009. Compare that to 45 in 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem was, the articles weren\u2019t particularly helpful.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were occasional predictions about what boomers would do to society: \u201cBaby Boomers to Inject New Life into Funeral Industry\u201d (Reuters), \u201cAre Baby Boomers Killing Facebook and Twitter?\u201d (<\/span>PCWorld<\/span><\/i>). <\/span><\/p>\n

There was coverage of older people doing unusual things: \u201cFormer President George HW Bush Skydives on 85<\/span>th<\/span> Birthday\u201d (<\/span>Los Angeles Times<\/span><\/i>).<\/span><\/p>\n

But in-depth, meaningful stories were sparse, recalls Kay Klotzburger, founder and president of the Silver Century Foundation. Articles about, say, a centenarian\u2019s birthday party or a 98-year-old\u2019s hot-air balloon ride were \u201cnot making a contribution, in my mind, to a national conversation about the fact that many of us were living longer lives,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many more people were older, and you couldn\u2019t dismiss them as being invisible and irrelevant.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014Kay Klotzburger<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Truly, boomers weren\u2019t just retiring; they were going to live longer. In 2009, a 65-year-old could expect to live to age 84 on average, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Back in 1950, that would have been 79. Boomers had a lot of living left to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cSociety\u2019s demographics were changing,\u201d Klotzburger says. \u201cMany more people were older, and you couldn\u2019t dismiss them as being invisible and irrelevant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So she decided to start commissioning articles through her grant-making nonprofit, the Silver Century Foundation. These articles, published on the foundation\u2019s website, would present realistic, thoughtful, helpful information about aging. \u201cWe thought we would be trailblazers and set the standard for a non-ageist view of older people,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n

But there was an unexpected glitch: finding writers who could help further the mission. Her search would lead her to a new grant-making focus. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Writing Problem<\/b><\/p>\n

At the time, few freelance writers specialized in aging, and most of the ones Klotzburger found were \u201cold-fashioned in their approach,\u201d she says. \u201cThey stereotyped and were often ageist. More than once, we had to rewrite their material or kill it altogether.\u201d Submitted articles also tended to be superficial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a couple of frustrating years of operating this way, I began wondering if any journalism schools offered courses in how to write about the personal, scientific and economic issues related to populations living longer lives,\u201d Klotzburger says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her curiosity eventually took her to the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program, from the Gerontological Society of America and, at the time, New American Media.<\/span><\/p>\n

How the Fellowship Works<\/b><\/p>\n

The Journalists in Aging Fellows Program launched in 2009\u2014around the same time Klotzburger started publishing articles on silvercentury.org\u2014with the goal of increasing in-depth coverage of aging issues. <\/span><\/p>\n

Each year, more than a dozen journalists participate\u2014both staffers and freelancers. They\u2019re chosen based in part on story pitches. Funders, like the Silver Century Foundation, are not involved in choosing fellows for the program. Instead, they\u2019re assigned fellows, though they can request swaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the beginning of their fellowship, the journalists attend the annual Gerontological Society of America (GSA) conference, which draws about 4,000 gerontologists from 30 countries. It\u2019s kick-started with a daylong program for the reporters only, during which they learn about issues such as changing demographics, retirement security, health care concerns and income insecurity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the coming months, the fellows write two articles on issues related to aging\u2014one long-form and one short-form. For these stories, if they wish, they can interview experts they met at the conference. The program can also help connect them to other gerontology experts.<\/span><\/p>\n

When applying for the fellowship, each journalist must have an outlet committed to \u201clikely\u201d publishing their long-form story. Other outlets can also publish the stories, for free, as long as a credit is included. Articles have been distributed by the <\/span>Washington Post<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Forbes<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Politico<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Smithsonian Magazine<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>US News & World Report<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Slate<\/span><\/i>, as well as daily newspapers and NPR affiliates. <\/span><\/p>\n

The plan focused on getting probing, non-ageist news stories published.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Each fellow receives a stipend of $1,500, and travel expenses to the conference are covered. Half of the fellows are from mainstream media; half are from ethnic media. In addition, about half a dozen fellows from the previous year are invited to return. These \u201ccontinuing fellows\u201d are expected to write one article each. They receive a $1,250 stipend, which includes travel expenses to the conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first five years, the program was funded almost exclusively by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. But in 2013, \u201cthe bottom fell out of the long term care insurance market, and MetLife pulled out,\u201d says Paul Kleyman, co-founder of the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fortunately for the program, Klotzburger had met Kleyman just that year and asked about becoming a funder. In 2014, the Silver Century Foundation funded five of 19 fellows and five of 15 continuing fellows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the first larger-sum grant the foundation gave,\u201d Klotzburger says. And it marked the beginning of a new, strategic, grant-making plan\u2014one focused on supporting the dissemination of probing, non-ageist stories about aging.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the Silver Century Foundation is the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program\u2019s key funder. For 2020, the program is also supported by the RRF Foundation for Aging, the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Gannett Foundation. <\/span><\/p>\n

New American Media, which founded the program with the Gerontological Society on Aging, has dissolved. Taking up its co-organizer spot is an organization Kleyman founded, the Journalists Network on Generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Widening Perspectives, Deepening Stories<\/b><\/p>\n

As of the 2020 class, 185 journalists will have gone through the fellows program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve had reporters in their 20s to reporters in their 80s\u2014some of them great, seasoned reporters,\u201d Kleyman says. \u201cIf you\u2019re beginning to cover a new area of news, it doesn\u2019t matter how old you are; you still don\u2019t know that area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Rhonda J. Miller, a radio <\/span>reporter who has won Associated Press and Edward R. Murrow awards, the fellowship helped her grow what would have been a brief, local story into a two-part series with an international element.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018 and 2019, the Silver Century Foundation sponsored Miller, who\u2019s a reporter and producer for WKU Public Radio in Bowling Green, KY. One of her 2019 stories was about a training program for older adults that was struggling to get businesses to hire the trainees. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the GSA conference, Miller interviewed workforce experts from Australia and Israel about what their countries were doing to keep older people employed. These interviews were the impetus for part two of her series, which described the upskilling program as part of a \u201cglobal trend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The fellowship made part two possible not only because Miller met the researchers but because she met them in person. As a radio reporter, Miller has to have good sound in order to produce a story. \u201cI can’t just call people up and say, \u2018How’s this working?\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI have to actually go there and spend time and record.\u201d In 2020, her series won an award from the Kentucky Associated Press Broadcasters. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since her fellowships, Miller says she now considers aging one of her beats.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Program\u2019s Success<\/b><\/p>\n

The Journalists in Aging Fellows Program has funded more than 700 stories and inspired countless others. Stories can be nationally or locally focused. Topics have run the gamut\u2014health care, workforce, immigration. Recent articles funded by the Silver Century Foundation have included such diverse headlines as: \u201cWhat We Learn From the Long Lives of Nuns (Think: People, Not Productivity),\u201d \u201cPandemic Adds to Strain for Cape Grandparents Raising Grandchildren\u201d and \u201cVietnamese Death Anniversaries Unite Young and Old.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Both Kleyman and Klotzburger say articles about aging are less sparse than they used to be, thanks in part to the fellows program and similar endeavors, such as Columbia University\u2019s Age Boom Academy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today, when age-beat reporters are told to cover something like a 90<\/span>th<\/span>-birthday skydive, they might respond, \u201cSend a kid in general assignment for that; that\u2019s not what I do. I do serious coverage on aging,\u201d Kleyman says. \u201cI\u2019ve had a number of reporters telling me that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe subject is being covered better. More material is getting out there,\u201d Klotzburger says. \u201cAnd if you were to read these articles, you\u2019d find that they\u2019re not ageist anymore. They\u2019re really talking about issues that people in midlife and older people have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s been significant improvements, and I think we\u2019ve been a good part of that.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014Paul Kleyman<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe fellowship made me more aware of aging issues all around,\u201d says Sandra Larson, a freelance journalist who\u2019s covered communities of color for the <\/span>Bay State Banner<\/span><\/i>, a newspaper in Boston, and is a regular contributor to <\/span>Next City<\/span><\/i>, a Philadelphia-based, nonprofit, urban-affairs publication. \u201cOne of the things I realized is it’s not always easy to find and interview older people. You have to make a conscious effort because they’re not the people on the street necessarily.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Larson has been part of the fellowship three times. The Silver Century Foundation was her sponsor in 2016, when she wrote about memory caf\u00e9s for people with dementia. She notes that because the population is aging, many people are experiencing age-related challenges or are caretakers. \u201cIt’s good for all of us to understand a little more what that’s actually like,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are a lot of people silently bearing a lot of burdens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s still plenty more work to do. \u201cAs recently as last year, a freelancer said she went to an editor she works with, pitched a story on aging and the guy said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you do something on millennials?\u2019\u201d Kleyman says. \u201cSo there\u2019s still a lot of that. But there\u2019s been significant improvements, and I think we\u2019ve been a good part of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the future, Klotzburger would like to see more articles about changing demographics, internal ageism and preparing for a longer life. In fact, the Silver Century Foundation has embarked on a new grant venture with Kaiser Health News focused on longevity. That\u2019s the next story behind the grant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/b><\/p>\n

Here are the articles funded by the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program that the Silver Century Foundation has published on silvercentury.org:<\/span><\/p>\n