Media Contest Award Schedules

VoterMedia.org usually offers larger award pools for voter-funded media (VFM) contests of longer duration. This encourages the media to cover not only election campaigns, but also policy issues and elected leaders' performance at other times of the year. It gives media contestants time to build their reputations, and to compare and critique each others' coverage.

Thus each of our current sponsorship offers linked below is a schedule of award amounts. If a contest starts earlier (so that it will run longer until the next election), then the award pool we offer is higher:

British Columbia Institute of Technology 2007-2008

Western Washington University 2007-2008

Longer contest periods also increase the potential for linking with other student unions running VFM contests at the same time, e.g. to learn from each other.

The offer schedules are not set in stone -- indications only, subject to negotiation. A student union can also augment the award pool with its own funds if desired.

To launch a VFM contest, at least Implementation Steps 3, 5, 6 and 7 should be completed.

Another design for VFM to reward media for coverage throughout the year would be to award voter-directed funding monthly. People could vote on media via the internet at any time, and tally the votes once a month -- see Continuous VFM.