2006 Gather Citizen Journalism Scholarship Contest Rules

 2006
Gather Citizen Journalism Scholarship Contest
Rules

1. All entries must be received by Monday, May 1, 11:59 PM, EST 2006. Sponsor's clock governs time.
2. Eligibility: This Contest is open to full-time journalism students in the 50 United States and D.C., 18 years of age and older. Employees of Gather Inc., American Public Media Group, Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, The Huffington Post and their immediate families or members of household are not permitted to enter the Contest.

How to enter:  You must complete three (3) activities in order to enter this Contest:

1) Click the link provided to enter the contest (see below). To enter you must become a Gather member as well as a member of the Citizen Journalism Contest group on Gather (both activities are free). You must use a university .edu email address and your real name to register for the contest.

Contest registration: Click Here

If you have any trouble registering for the site and the group using the link provided, please email citizenjournalism@gatherinc.com for help. 

2) Once you have been accepted to the Citizen Journalism Contest group on Gather.com, publish your entry(ies) (multiple entries permitted) on Gather and tag the article(s) with: citizen journalism 2006 undergrad if you are an undergraduate student or citizen journalism 2006 grad if you are a graduate student.  At the end of your submission, please state the name of your school/program and article word count. When publishing, you must publish to Everyone and the Citizen Journalism Contest group. For full submission details visit: How To Submit Your Entry.

Your submission will be posted on Gather.com on the Citizen Journalism Group page and to the site at large. Visit journalism.gather.com throughout the contest for updates and to view contest submissions.

3) The final step in the entry process is sending a copy of your entry(ies) to the judges via email. Please email a copy of your article (text can be in the body of your email or a word attachment) to citizenjournalism@gatherinc.com. The subject of your email should be Citizen Journalism 2006 undergrad if you are an undergraduate student or Citizen Journalism 2006 grad  if you are a graduate student. All submissions for consideration must come from a .edu email address. In your email please add your word count, first name, last name and your school.

Entries should portray a real life, eyewitness account or personally researched story about a current event (news, politics, sporting etc).  Submissions should be between 500 - 1,500 words. Please type the word count at the end of your entry. Entries longer than 1,500 words will be disqualified. Multiple entries are permitted per author. All entries must be: in English, original material, unpublished and may not be submitted elsewhere until the contest is over and the winners are announced. Contest entries should not contain pornography, sexual or racial slurs, offensive language or obscenities. Please do not publish the same story on Gather.com more than once.  For full submission details visit: How To Submit Your Entry.

3. Gather reserves the one-time publication rights to all entries. Entrants retain reprint rights to their work.
4. Judging: The Gather.com editorial team will judge all entries and choose 20 finalists (10 undergraduate students and 10 graduate students who will be announced on Gather.com on Monday, May 8, 2006. The criteria the judges will use are: the story is written in an "original voice," the circumstances of the current event are compelling and there is an engaging style to the writing. The occasional spelling or grammatical error will be overlooked. The judges are looking for fantastic writers, not editors. However, if a few stories are finalists and the judges are having a hard time making a decision, a story with few or no errors will have the advantage over one with multiple errors. You may make small edits to correct a spelling or grammatical error by clicking the "edit" button next to your submission. You may not change the story you submit once it has been published. Any story that contains substantive changes will be disqualified. Once the 20 finalists are announced, Arianna Huffington will select one undergraduate and one graduate Grand Prize winner. She will also select 2 additional Runner Up winners (1 graduate and 1 undergraduate)  Winners will be notified by Friday, May 12, 2006 (via email) and announced on Gather Monday, May 15, 2006.
5. Quantity, Prize, Approximate Retail Value (ARV): (2) Grand Prize: $1,000  scholarships  and an optional Fall 2006 unpaid internship opportunity at The Huffington Post (in New York or Los Angeles) ARV: — $1,000

(2) Runners Up: Optional Summer/Fall 2006 unpaid internship opportunity at The Huffington Post (in New York or Los Angeles depending on availability)

6. General: Contest administration and verification will be supervised by Gather.com whose decisions are final. By participating in this Contest, you agree to be bound by these Official Rules. The submission of entries will be conducted on the Internet at journalism.gather.com only. Those wishing to enter an article are responsible for accessing the correct website and for all costs, or charges involved in accessing the website and warrant that the cost of accessing the site, if any, is part of a larger agreement with an Internet Service Provider or some other means, and that the cost of this access is not an incremental cost. Sponsor is not responsible for those who cannot access the Internet or cannot click-through for any period of time or for messages, votes or submissions that are garbled or if entry or voting information is not captured correctly on account of technical, hardware, software, telephone, Internet, virus contamination, network, human error or any other problems; and for delay, failure or malfunction for any reason. Sponsor assumes no liability for damage caused to entrant's or any other person's/entity's computer hardware, software or communications network, regardless of cause. Sponsor reserves the right to terminate/cancel or modify the online entering or disqualify any entrant if, in Sponsor's sole judgment, it determines that the integrity or fairness of the Contest has been, or could be, compromised or that the Contest is not capable of running as planned or fairly, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention (hacking), fraud, technical failures, force majeur or any other cause. Should this Contest be cancelled after Contest-Start, but prior to the Contest-End, judging will take place in the manner detailed above from all entries received up to the point of termination/cancellation. In the case of a dispute regarding who submitted a particular online entry, the entry will be deemed submitted by name on the registration. A Grand Prize winner will be required to execute and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Release within seven (7) days of the date on notification. If a winner fails to comply with these Official Rules or if a prize or prize notification is returned or cannot be delivered, or if the Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability and Publicity Releases is not executed properly and returned within seven (7) days, it will be concluded definitively that the prize has been declined and another recipient will not be chosen. By entering this Contest, a participant explicitly releases, discharges and holds harmless Gather Inc., American Public Media Group, Minnesota Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington and THE MARKETING AGENCY, LLC, their respective affiliates, parent companies, agents, subsidiaries, successors and assigns and their respective promotion, advertising, design, web design, web hosting and production agencies and print production agencies and all their respective shareholders, directors, officers and employees, one and all, from any and all liability, actions, causes of action, damages, actual, incidental or consequential, claims and demands whatsoever in law or equity, including all "costs", which he/she now has or may acquire, by reason of any personal injury, death, loss of or damage to property, or any reason, occurring during or arising out of his/her participation in the Contest and the acceptance and use or misuse of a prize. By accepting a prize, winner waives the right to 1) assert as a cost of winning the prize any and all costs of verification and redemption or travel to redeem said prize, and 2) claim any liability (including attorney's fees and costs) which might arise from redeeming or seeking to redeem said prize (including any travel related thereto). Sponsor and its officers, directors, affiliates, related entities, partners, partnerships, principals, representatives, agents, licensees, successors and assigns (i) make no warranty, guarantee or representation of any kind concerning the prizes; and (ii) disclaim any implied warranty. The right to receive the prize is non-assignable and non-transferable and no prize substitution, extension,  transfer or exchange will be allowed
7. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. If any provision of this Contest shall be deemed to violate any federal, state or municipal law, it shall be amended to conform to such law and all other provisions shall remain in full force and effect.
8. All taxes are Grand Prizewinners' responsibility; the value of the prize will be treated as ordinary income to prize recipient for income tax purposes and an IRS Form 1099 for the year 2006 will be sent to winners of prizes valued over $600. All materials submitted become the property of Sponsor and none will be returned or acknowledged.
9. Gather Inc., American Public Media Group, Minnesota Public Radio, The Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington and THE MARKETING AGENCY, LLC and all production and hosting agencies shall not be responsible for technical, pictorial, typographical or editorial errors or omissions in any marketing materials or these Official Rules. This Contest is conducted in American English.
10. Entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims, actions and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest or the prize awarded and all issues and questions concerning the validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively in a court of competent jurisdiction sitting in Suffolk County, MA. Any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Contest and never shall include consequential, incidental or punitive damages, and in no event attorneys' fees or "costs". Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above may not apply to you.
11. For a Winners list, check the website at journalism.gather.com on or about May 15, 2006 until July 30, 2006.
12. Sponsor: Gather Inc., 85 Devonshire Street, 3rd floor, Boston, MA 02109.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The use of certain products and services as prizes does not imply participation in, or approval of, this Contest by their respective companies.

To enter the Citizen Journalism Contest: Click Here
For more details on entering the contest visit:
How To Submit Your Entry
For all additional contest questions email: Citizenjournalism@gatherinc.com