The International Center for Journalists and Code for Africa (CfAfrica) seek outstanding applicants with a background in data journalism story production and engagement strategies for a one-year Knight Fellowship to help spearhead their data journalism initiative in four “hub” countries: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania.
This Fellow will lead the design and execution of some of CfAfrica’s cross-border data journalism storytelling projects to ensure they are innovative and have maximum organizational and societal impact, and the best possible audience engagement. This Fellow will work alongside three ICFJ Knight Fellows overseeing this pan-African initiative: Chris Roper, David Lemayian and Justin Arenstein, founder of Code for Africa.
Working as part of a larger pan-African team, the selected Fellow will help in-country Knight Fellows, teams of CfAfrica data journalists and technologists embedded into partner newsrooms and local CitizenLabs harness data to build compelling journalistic projects, using strong mobile and interactive web components. The goal: to catalyze news media to deliver ongoing, high-quality development news, on topics ranging from healthcare to water and sanitation, that engages audiences and sparks systemic change.
To achieve success, you will gain a critical understanding of CfAfrica’s existing tools and approaches, and should be a passionate advocate for how these approaches can strengthen news gathering. An operations whiz, you will smoothly manage simultaneous projects with numerous moving parts and according to project plans. Using your great interpersonal skills, you will connect with journalists and media managers through events, regular newsroom visits, online training, and more. A teacher and communicator at heart, you will think deeply about methodology and curriculum. You will understand how to scale efforts and provide ongoing support. At the same time, you will be a champion for the needs of the media, and an advocate for creating tools that can further enable digital reporting. You will be a team player who loves working on a purpose-driven team that operates with high creativity and velocity.
Proposed Activities
Coordinated by CfAfrica and through partnership with pan-African Knight Fellows, in-country Knight Fellows and program partners, the Knight Fellow will work with journalists and technologists on the following:
- Drive large, cross-border data journalism storytelling projects for Code for Africa and help in-country Knight Fellows in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa develop projects and content with news partners and with CfAfrica’s own CitizenLabs that effectively target key audiences and achieve mass engagement
- Gain a critical understanding of CfAfrica’s existing tools and approaches, and be a passionate advocate for how these approaches can engage audiences
- Develop on-going relationships with journalists and other stakeholders who are using CfAfrica tools and partner news content to turn their experiences into compelling stories
- Track key project analytics and metrics, measure impact and generate stories and case studies to showcase results
- Help organize community events that bring together important stakeholders from news media, civil society, tech companies and government to drive collaboration and widespread adoption of audience engagement strategies and technologies
- Bring an entrepreneurial spirit to work everyday conceiving of new opportunities and avenues to help the media grow through audience engagement
Qualifications and Skills
The successful candidate will:
- Significant experience working as a senior journalist or in a leadership position in the media or civic technology industries
- Significant experience in creating impactful digital storytelling, as well as managing data journalism teams and building projects that achieve measurable audience engagement
- Experience in the Global South, especially Sub Saharan Africa
- A deep knowledge of and passion for technology, and a strong track record using technology to tell stories to audiences
- Excellent leadership and management skills
- Ability to manage several concurrent projects with timely deliverables
- Ability to work effectively in a team
- Fluency in English; proficiency in other languages spoken in Sub Saharan Africa is a plus
- Excellent public speaking and interpersonal skills
The Knight Fellow may be from any country, and will be based in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa for his or her fellowship. The duration of the fellowship is one year, with the goal of starting as soon as the right candidate is available. There is the possibility of extension for up to one more year.
How to Apply If you are interested in being a candidate, please apply here and select the fellowship for which you are applying: “Data Editor Fellow.” You can direct any questions to: Baindu Kallon at bkallon@icfj.org.
More information on the ICFJ pan-African data journalism program can be found here: http://www.icfj.org/news/new-data-journalism-program-helps-africans-improve-lives
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the ICFJ Knight Fellowship 2016
