The Walkley Foundation has announced QUT’s Navin Sam Regi as one of the recipients of a share of its first-round $5 million dollar Facebook News fund.
Sam is one of nine independent journalists—and the only one from Queensland—to have received funding. He is currently an MPhil student with the QUT Design Lab researching the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, supervised by Prof. Evonne Miller and the Digital Media Research Centre’s Dr. T.J. Thomson.
The $50,405 in Facebook funding will support Regi further the journalistic outputs of his master’s research. According to Regi, support from the Facebook News Fund is a recognition of the pertinence of aged care discourse, and it opens new opportunities to expand the scope of Regi’s storytelling beyond what he initially planned.
While Regi’s research investigates the potential of process-driven journalism in telling the story of the Royal Commission into Aged Care, the journalistic outputs will amplify these stories through various news outlets to a broader audience.
The Walkley Foundation is one of Australia’s peak bodies recognising great Australian journalism and is committed to supporting high-value journalism.
The Facebook News fund is a $15 million, three-year investment into the most promising public interest journalism and digital newsroom projects, entrusted upon the Walkley Foundation to identify and award.