Heat-Story Pitch Writer Frontline

Are you a visual storyteller, journalist, photo-journalist, or socials-first content creator? Dialogue Earth wants to hear from you.

We are inviting pitches from visual storytellers and social-media-savvy journalists with a connection to a frontline urban community anywhere in the Global South that experiences dangerous levels of heat.

This is a chance for your story to be told on a global platform with readers from around the world, with compensation of $1500 USD. The submission, and submissions can be made in English or other languages. We are prioritising stories from Latin America and South Asia, but are open to entries from across the Global South.

As part of our ongoing series on heat adaptation, the aim of this call for pitches is to shine a light on the experiences of people living with extreme heat and its impact on health in frontline urban communities across the Global South. We want to learn from these communities what they’re already doing to adapt to heat, and share their stories of resilience with a wider, international audience.

We are interested in all types of community-focused solutions such as changes to home design, community spaces, grassroots organisations, policies that support access to heat adaptations, and changes to lifestyles, work patterns or other routines.

• Visual-led, from-the-ground stories about the experiences of specific frontline urban communities in the Global South living with extreme heat and its impact on health, and their interesting, under-reported solutions or adaptations to the problems extreme heat brings.
• The solutions should be sustainable, affordable and accessible, already implemented and working on the ground. They can be new and innovative or based on traditional knowledge and techniques. Ideally the solutions originate from the communities themselves, but top-down initiatives that work well for community members are also considered.
• Frontline communities can be defined geographically, socio-economically, culturally or in any other way. Examples include outdoor workers, the elderly or people living in crowded, low-income neighbourhoods in any city of any size.
• Locations we’re particularly interested in are Latin America and South Asia. Examples include Chennai in India, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and other cities facing increasing levels of heat.

• A package of 30–40 images with caption information.
• An accompanying article of around 800 words.
• At least one social-first video (including raw footage and a script). The video may be a reel, carousel, series or another format suitable for Instagram, Linked In or Tik Tok.

Rates are $1500 USD to cover all deliverables.

All story ideas and submitted content must be original, unpublished elsewhere and exclusive to us. Your photo story will be published on our website under Creative Commons, and the images will also be added to a heat archive on Flickr under the same licence. Materials from your photo story may also be used on social media and on the website. We do not accept any pitches, articles or other content that has been written, created or edited using artificial intelligence (AI).

Only transcription and translation tools are allowed, and you must state if a translation tool is used.

• Must belong to or have good personal or professional connections with a frontline community in an urban area in the Global South that struggles with dangerous levels of heat.
• Can pitch as an individual or a team. Journalists with strong social‑media presence and experience creating social-first content are particularly encouraged.
• Traditional text-first journalists, photojournalists and social-first creator journalists are welcome.
• We welcome journalists with expertise in climate, environment, health, culture or sport.
• Multilingual submissions are accepted, but English is preferred. We will support final content written in Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, Bahasa Indonesia or Thai.

• Pitch written in English, 300–500 words.
• Submit via the online form.
• The form will ask for the following:

• The solution you want to cover and how you plan to tell the story.
• The community you want to cover, its experience with dangerous heat and your connection to it.
• Your previous journalism experience, links to your website or portfolio, examples of work, and social media profiles.
• Collaborators you plan to work with and how their skills complement yours, plus links that demonstrate their skills.

Pitch deadline: 31 July 2026.