Based in the Journalism Department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Africa Check seeks to appoint a Health Fellow (Full-time)
Application Deadline: 31st August 2020
About the Award: We are offering a year-long fellowship, in partnership with Facebook, to deepen our health misinformation work. Over the past several months, our team has increasingly focused on debunking Covid-19 misinformation, and we want to expand our capacity to combat health misinformation and surface more reliable information to people.
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Type: Fellowship
Eligibility:
- A bachelor’s degree
- Five years’ experience in fact-related fields such as media, research and academia
- Specialist subject knowledge in health
- Well-honed nonsense detector
- Passion for news, and in particular health news
- Ability to act impartially
- Attention to detail
- Ability to explain complex issues in simple language
- Strong numeracy, analytical and research skills
- Resilient self-starter who takes ownership of projects while working collaboratively in a team environment
- Fluency in an African language/French (advantageous)
- Experience in working across diverse geographies and cultures (advantageous)
Eligible Countries: African countries
To be Taken at (Country): University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, SA
Number of Awards: Not specified
Value of Award: Key responsibilities include:
- Researching and producing fact-check reports on key health claims circulating in public debate in South Africa and southern Africa
- Researching and producing health-related factsheets and guides to increase the public’s access to accurate and reliable information
- Acting as a spokesperson for Africa Check, including speaking at events, conferences and in the media on our health misinformation efforts
- Supporting our efforts to build impactful partnerships with reliable health experts and health bodies
- Monitoring both social and mainstream media and other relevant channels for health
claims of concern - Working with our impact team to identify trends in health misinformation across the continent, and effectively communicate those insights to help us and others in the fact-checking and media community continuously learn and improve our approach to
health fact-checking - Finding and implementing innovative ways to better coordinate our health misinformation efforts across our four countries of operation
- Assisting in training workshops and other events for media, civil society organisations, the general public and policymakers
- The fellow will have access to training modules from third-party experts as well as from the team at CrowdTangle, Facebook’s social analytics tool
Duration of Award: 1 year
How to Apply: Submit a CV with a cover letter explaining why you would be ideal for the position to[email protected] by 31 August 2020 using the following subject line: “Application health fellow”. In your cover letter, suggest a health claim in the news that should be fact-checkedand importantly, why you think it matters, and what you would do to combat its spread.
GOODLUCK
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