Job Title: Narrative Journalism Trainer

Location: Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Duration: 4 – 5 months

Supervisor: Project Director

Category: Health Emergency

Anticipated Start Date: Immediate

About Internews:

Internews empowers people worldwide with the trustworthy, high-quality news and information they need to make informed decisions, participate in their communities, and hold power to account. Our vision is to unleash human potential everywhere by turning on the bright light of information.

For more than 35 years, in more than 100 countries, Internews has worked to build healthy media and information environments where they are most needed. We have proudly launched hundreds of sustainable organizations, bolstered the skills of thousands of media professionals, activists, and citizens, and helped our partners reach millions of people with quality, local information.

Internews is a charity operating internationally, with administrative centres in California, Washington DC, London and Paris as well as regional hubs in Bangkok, Kiev and Nairobi. Formed in 1982, Internews currently has offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America.

About the role:

Internews is seeking a Narrative Journalism Trainer with experience in Humanitarian settings to provide training, mentoring and editorial direction for an Ebola media activity with journalists and information respondents in DRC: to create relatable narratives at the intersection of epidemic response and storytelling. The Narrative Journalism Trainer leads a process which draws on rumor tracking and qualitative research carried out around the Ebola response in DRC and guides journalists to record oral histories, then craft long-form, in-depth narratives and story-lines reflecting lived experiences of the Ebola outbreak and the humanitarian response. **

The Narrative Journalism Trainer will ensure the most pressing and prevalent experiences are reflected in the media accessed by affected communities. This is done by arranging and Ieading workshops on in-depth interviewing and narrative journalism in Goma (1) Beni (1) Butembo (1) Ituri (1), then providing field guidance to journalists in the execution of these interviews and following through with extensive mentoring towards the production of media outputs. It is expected that the Narrative Journalism Trainer will work with team members to perform this activity. The Narrative Journalism Trainer also has co-responsibility for weekly Feedback and Rumor Tracking Bulletins designed to be circulated among Ebola response stakeholders to ease their decision-making processes

The Narrative Journalism Trainer supports the Internews team and its partners to make the voices of affected communities heard. S/he will work collaboratively to create linkages between the narrative journalism activity and other activities in a comprehensive information and engagement program of community engagement and reflection to contribute to a deeper understanding of resistance to some medical, humanitarian and communications interventions, some of the reasons why so many new cases of Ebola still occur in DRC. The Narrative Journalism Trainer has co-responsibility for the weekly Rumor Tracking bulletins, which will offer a reliable source of information for Ebola response stakeholders, notably in the designing of informative content (media and non-media) that addresses rumors and questions and is accurate and relevant to community concerns.

The Narrative Journalism Trainer will work with the Humanitarian Data Analyst in documenting media outputs resulting from the deep listening exercise. S/he will also work with the Health Journalism Advisor in regularly reviewing various media outputs and providing continued guidance and support to journalists for quality media production.

The Narrative Journalism Trainer’s duties include:

• Work with team members to provide narrative journalism/long-form media training.
• Invite and screen suitable participants of the training, drawn from among partner stations in Goma (1) Beni (1) Butembo (1) Ituri (1).
• Design and lead narrative journalism training sessions, including in-depth interviewing, which would provide material for in-depth journalism outputs, packaged to be suitable for affected media audiences.
• With the training team, provide extensive and ongoing mentoring of participants to ensure quality and relatable outputs.
• Conduct regular scans of feedback and rumor tracking activities by Internews and other partners, in order to reflect trends and incorporate data into the interview and story production processes.
• Provide editorial oversight and/or contributions to the weekly Rumor Tracking bulletins.
• Actively seek synergies with Communicating with Communities (CwC) activities in the broader program, and ensure that the most pressing questions, concerns and rumors emanating from feedback, interviewing, engagement and listening processes are reflected in the various forms of output and feedback being produced in the program.
• Support Monitoring and Evaluation activities to assess impact, reach and quality of the on-going project.
• Perform any other duties as assigned by the supervisors.

Qualifications:

• Proven experience in the production of long form of narratives and immersive storytelling through gathering and synthesizing oral histories.
• A track record of science reporting, with an emphasis of making the science accessible to non-scientists.
• Experience with media and/or information interventions to address humanitarian needs
• Editorial and leadership skills.
• Strong writing skills to ensure Humanitarian Bulletins are accurate and incorporate humanitarian principles and editorial guidelines.
• Good understanding of Ebola and or other health emergencies.
• Strong understanding of the local context.
• Strong French and English language skills – reading, writing and communication

Desirable:

• Knowledge of other languages used in the region is a plus (Swahili, Kinande, Lingala…)
• Self-motivated and able to work as a member of a team in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong understanding of, and commitment towards editorial values of the project.

This position is being offered and hired by Internews Network. Benefits will be consistent with Internews Network's offerings and will be reviewed during the hiring process. Additional information can be found on our About Working for Internews page.