Buenos Aires English for Journalists and Disinformation | PAS AR200 FY20 02

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAS AR200 FY20 02

The Buenos Aires English for Journalists and Disinformation grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number PAS AR200 FY20 02) is a U.S. Department of State, U.S. Mission to Argentina initiative that funds the creation of an English-language curriculum tailored for Spanish-speaking journalists, editors, and academics in Argentina who already have intermediate to advanced English proficiency. The core purpose is to merge English language development with practical journalism training focused on identifying, understanding, and countering misinformation and disinformation. The curriculum must be built from and aligned with UNESCO's Journalism, "Fake News" and Disinformation: A Handbook for Journalism Education and Training, using that publication's curriculum framework and materials as the foundation, while adapting the content into an English-learning program that makes sense for working media professionals and journalism educators.

The scope of work centers on converting UNESCO's content into a structured course that helps participants strengthen professional English skills while also building deeper literacy around "information disorder" and modern threats to credible reporting. The required curriculum is organized into seven thematic units that cover: why truth, trust, and journalism matter; how to think about "information disorder"; the different formats and motivations behind misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information; how the news industry has transformed; how digital technology and social platforms accelerate the spread of false or misleading narratives; how to combat mis- and disinformation through media and information literacy (MIL); and a set of hands-on verification and resilience topics including fact-checking fundamentals, social media verification, assessing sources and visual content, and responding to online abuse when journalists and their sources are targeted. A key expectation is that the program not only explains these issues conceptually, but also equips participants with practical approaches newsrooms can use to distinguish credible journalism from manipulated content and rebuild public trust.

Program design requirements are highly specific. Every activity in the curriculum, whether it is a reading passage, interactive exercise, case study, role-play, writing assignment, or discussion prompt, must be offered at two proficiency levels: Intermediate and Advanced. The full curriculum must be divided into two modules, each containing 10 classes, for a total of 20 classes. Each class is designed as a three-hour in-person (or synchronous classroom-style) session plus one hour of online lab work, supported by three hours of homework per class. This structure signals a blended-learning model: it should intentionally combine classroom instruction with technology-enabled learning and assessment, using online components to reinforce skills practice and tracking while still relying on instructor-led activities to deepen discussion, collaborative analysis, and applied journalism exercises.

The grantee's responsibilities go beyond writing lesson plans. The funded organization must design and plan the full 20-class curriculum specifically about disinformation in English for journalists, and also include a welcome orientation session that introduces participants to the program's goals and to the host-country context. The curriculum must close with a final session that synthesizes what was learned and helps participants plan next steps as alumni, with an emphasis on ongoing engagement and continued application of the skills. The opportunity also asks for "creative and effective" ways to amplify impact, meaning the design should help participants share tools and concepts with peers in their newsrooms or professional networks, not just consume training individually. In addition, the grantee must develop an evaluation plan to measure impact and sustain connections, with examples such as establishing a post-course distribution list or a dedicated social media group to support alumni collaboration, resource sharing, and continued discussion of verification practices and disinformation trends.

A notable feature of this grant is that the funded organization may not be the organization that ultimately delivers the training. The grantee is being funded primarily to design the program; the U.S. Embassy's Public Affairs Section in Argentina may later select a different third-party institution to conduct the course. That makes the curriculum's clarity, transferability, and ease of implementation especially important: materials should be instructor-ready, with clear pacing, activity instructions, level-appropriate variants, assessment methods, and supporting resources that another provider could pick up and run effectively.

The opportunity is framed within a broader press-freedom and democratic resilience context. It highlights that Argentina's media ecosystem, like many around the world, faces intense pressure from the rapid spread of unreliable information on social media, the financial disruption tied to the decline of print journalism and changing business models, and increasingly hostile rhetoric directed at the press. The program is positioned as a way to help journalists and media outlets navigate those pressures by improving verification habits, strengthening public trust, developing new professional skills, and learning how to respond strategically to misinformation and disinformation. At the same time, it emphasizes the practical career value of English in a Spanish-speaking country: stronger English enables journalists to communicate more effectively with international sources and stakeholders, operate more confidently when reporting abroad, and access a wider range of databases, documents, and global reporting in real time.

Administratively, the award is a discretionary cooperative agreement with an award ceiling of $35,000 and an expectation of one award. The funding activity category is education, under CFDA number 19.040. The opportunity was created January 14, 2020, with an original closing date of March 13, 2020. Overall, the grant is best understood as a curriculum-development project at the intersection of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and journalism education, aimed at strengthening both language capability and the professional capacity to counter disinformation using internationally recognized frameworks and practical newsroom-oriented methods, informed in part by U.S. journalism experience and models of collaborative engagement with audiences.

• The Department of State, U.S. Mission to Argentina in the education sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Buenos Aires English for Journalists and Disinformation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.040.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 14, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 13, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $35,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for PAS AR200 FY20 02

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