Posted On: April 20, 2018
Fellowship
Media Organization: ProPublica
Company Description
ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account.
With a team of more than 75 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology. We focus on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Among other positive changes, our reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels.
Investigative journalism requires a great deal of time and resources, and many newsrooms can no longer afford to take on this kind of deep-dive reporting. As a nonprofit, ProPublica’s work is powered primarily through donations. The vast bulk of the money we spend goes directly into world-class, award-winning journalism. We are committed to uncovering the truth, no matter how long it takes or how much it costs, and we practice transparent financial reporting so donors know how their dollars are spent.
ProPublica was founded in 2007-2008 with the belief that investigative journalism is critical to our democracy. Our staff remains dedicated to carrying forward the important work of exposing corruption, informing the public about complex issues, and using the power of investigative journalism to spur reform.
Job Description
We’re adding to ProPublica Illinois’ engagement team and looking for someone to help us reach more people with our investigative journalism.
What You’ll Do
Working closely with Engagement Reporter Logan Jaffe, you’ll scheme ways to get ProPublica Illinois’ investigative journalism in front of people in two key ways:
You will help grow ProPublica’s Illinois’ audience, particularly via social media. That means you will be doing smart social journalism — including distribution, social-first content creation and social strategy around project launches.
You will work on investigative projects in collaboration with ProPublica Illinois reporters throughout the full life-cycle of projects, beginning with story conception. You’ll help identify what communities and audiences we need to reach, how we can reach them and the best ways to involve them in our reporting. Then, once a story publishes, you’ll think of ways to share our reporting with them to maximize the impact of our journalism.
This work may be as low-fi as a flier, as buzzy as a tweetstorm, or as structured as a weekly newsletter; whatever means is best for the story, the community and the audience. You’ll also be leveraging our social platforms not merely to promote stories but to publish them. That means creating work like this tweetstorm about a Chicago Police officer’s controversial Facebook post, or this one using visual representations of 911 calls, or writing newsletters that incorporate social reporting into the story.
If you have some combination of any of these skills, we want to hear from you:
You understand the social web and keep your eyes on the latest social and off-site platform trends.
You have experience managing social media accounts (not necessarily for a news organization, but it’s a plus) and have ideas on how to grow them.
You are a good listener — in person, on social media and all around the web. You want to understand what the conversation might be around a particular topic — and then turn that insight into material that brings more people to our work. (See: ProPublica Illinois is Listening).
You are a fluid, creative, smart and distinctive writer who can speak to people on different platforms in the ways they speak to each other.
You have an interest in and opinions about newsletters and are excited to help produce ProPublica Illinois’ weekly newsletter.
Design or multimedia experience? Are you an animated .gif connoisseur? We like all that.
Are you a newshound? We also like that.
You know about SEO.
You have an interest in analytics and metrics, and trying to figure out why people click or don’t click on certain Facebook posts.
And, finally, you are excited to find and reach communities actually impacted by a story, get them to inform our work, and be a central player in the storytelling on all platforms to maximize the resonance of the project.
Oh, and what we care about most is making sure we’re presenting our stories with accuracy and rigor. So, journalism experience, especially involving hard-hitting stories that shed light on injustices, would be a plus.
We expect that great candidates won’t necessarily fit every criteria we’ve described above. And you may also have important skills we haven’t thought of. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.
We are dedicated to improving our newsroom, in part by better reflecting the people we cover. We are committed to diversity and building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and ages. And we are taking steps to meet that commitment. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities. (If you’d like to learn a bit about us, see our series of Q&As with members of our newsroom).
To Apply
If all of this sounds exciting to you, apply here https://propublica.forms.fm/engagement-and-social-media-reporting-fellow-illinois . Deadline to apply is April 27.