WANTED: JOURNALISM INTERN(S)
Informed Opinions, a non-profit initiative of the feminist organization, Media Action, is working to bridge the gender gap in public discourse. We deliver guest lectures on the obstacles to women's participation in opinion media, and the consequences of their under-representation; offer workshops to expert women to support them in translating their expertise into short form written commentary; provide follow-up editing and pitching support; and make available to journalists a growing database of women experts.
Informed Opinions' Expanding Sources project (starting January 2012) focuses on expanding and cultivating a network of journalists and media producers (especially comment page editors, talk show producers, reporters) with the goals of:
* Increasing their awareness of the gender gap and its consequences
* Encouraging them to pro-actively seek out more women's voices
* Soliciting their feedback on and use of Informed Opinions' own expert database;
We are looking for one or two journalism student interns to:
* Help us expand the database to make it more useful to media producers by recruiting and including women experts who are already contributing to the media
* Directly engage media producers by:
* Surveying journalists about their access to and use of women experts;
* Conducting one-on-one interviews with key reporters, editors and producers;
* Disseminating regular updates to journalists about new additions to the database to remind them of its existence and value
* Adapt the database's existing design to better meet the needs identified by journalists;
* Conduct occasional content analysis research of op ed pages and talk shows.
Our ideal candidate(s):
* Identify as feminist and believe in the importance of our goals
* Are resourceful and reliable, confident and energetic
* Are comfortable working independently with regular direction and feedback
* Have solid computer skills (internet research, database maintenance, social media)
* Are creative and demonstrate initiative in suggesting new ideas and strategies
* Have really strong communication skills, written and verbal
* Are able to supply the name and number of a journalism professor as a referenc
We can offer $15/hour for full-time work over a six-week periods ($3,600), with the possibility of returning for a second internship. For more information, please contact Claire Bellefeuille, claire@informedopinions.org
