Posted On: October 20, 2011
Paid Journalism Internship
Media Organization: techPresident
Company Description
TechPresident.com is a resource for news and analysis about the ways that people in politics — from agitators in city halls to lobbyists and members of Congress — are using technology to change the way they do what they do, and they way technology is changing them. Founded in 2007, techPresident that year won the Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism for its coverage of the 2007-2008 presidential campaigns. TechPresident writers have also gone on to write for the Washington Post, New York Magazine, Politico, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, The Nation and elsewhere. It is produced by Personal Democracy Forum, a digital publisher and conference company that convenes experts and activists from across the political spectrum to discuss the future of politics in the networked world.
Job Description
The positions we're looking to fill are:
+ A research assistant/reporter who would gain significant subject matter expertise in technology and politics while compiling links and spotting trends for techPresident.com's daily coverage;
+ A research assistant/data journalist able to surface trends and identify new insights about the intersection of technology and politics through study of data about anything from retweets to campaign finance;
Assistants will also compile and help to edit our daily newsletter, assist in the daily curation of our soon-to-be-relaunched website and may have the opportunity to produce new graphics and visuals for our website as skills and needs permit.
Additional writing/production opportunities may present themselves to promising candidates but ARE NOT guaranteed.
Basic requirements include:
+ Strong writing and critical thinking skills;
+ At least rudimentary knowledge of national politics and of how the Internet works;
+ Strong news sense and an eye for the buried story, counterintuitive position or unspotted trend;
+ Basic use of online content management systems;
+ 15 hours minimum weekly commitment;
+ Must have own laptop
Assistants will also compile and help to edit our daily newsletter, assist in the daily curation of our soon-to-be-relaunched website and may have the opportunity to produce new graphics and visuals for our website as skills and needs permit.
Additionally, candidates with the following skills are especially encouraged to apply:
+ Web scraping and data collection in the language of your choosing (i.e., Python or Ruby);
+ Data-driven analysis using the database of your choosing (Fusion Tables, Access etc.);
+ Investigative journalism/computer-assisted reporting experience a plus;
+ Data visualization experience a plus;
+ Strong skill in HTML/CSS;
+ Layout/design skill, i.e. with Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign;
+ Javascript/Processing a plus
To Apply
Email clips, resume and cover letter to editors@personaldemocracy.com.