Deadline: February 16, 2020
OpenDemocracy’s Tracking the Backlash project is excited to announce a six-month, full-time investigative journalism fellowship focused on sexual and reproductive health issues, starting in March 2020. Working closely with their editors, the fellow will focus on investigating the health impacts of organised opposition to women’s and LGBTIQ rights across the world.
OpenDemocracy’s Tracking the Backlash project investigates organised opposition to women’s and LGBTIQ rights across the world. As a feminist media project, they also support more young reporters to do this work with practical fellowships. Their investigations have already had outsized impact and have been cited in leading international media including CNN, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, and the Guardian.
Fellowship Details
Working closely with the Health editor, Kerry Cullinan, the fellow will focus on investigative journalism projects that track and challenge the health impacts of organised opposition to sexual and reproductive rights. In practice they will:
- Conduct desk research as part of pre-reporting and planning for investigative projects on issues related to sexual and reproductive health
- Contribute to the development and implementation of editorial and partnership strategies to maximise the impact of our investigations
- Track and evaluate the impact of investigations including by compiling a short case study report summarising key outcomes and learnings
- Collect information and on-the-ground reportage for OpenDemocracy’s investigations, where possible and relevant to the fellow’s geographical location
- Contribute to written briefs for their internal team on the progress and preliminary findings of investigative projects
- Contribute to writing stories or otherwise presenting findings of the investigations for publication by openDemocracy and other outlets
- Write an end of fellowship report to provide honest and actionable feedback to our team on how to improve and execute future fellowships
Benefits
- The fellow will be paid a stipend of $2,100 per month and will be expected to dedicate 40 hours a week to research, reporting, planning and other tasks for at least two major investigative projects.
- Throughout, they will receive ongoing mentorship on health reporting and how to plan and execute impactful investigations.
- They will also be invited to attend special training workshops.
Eligibility
- Open to journalists with some experience in health or science reporting who are interested in developing their skills in this area while working on impactful investigations.
- As this is a specialist fellowship, you will get more out of this opportunity if you have at least 3-5 years of previous work experience. However, they will consider applications in their entirety and not on the basis of any single criterion.
- The fellow can be based anywhere in the world with reliable internet access though they particularly encourage applications from women and LGBTIQ candidates living in sub-Saharan Africa as well as Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the South Caucasus, which are regions where Tracking the Backlash is expanding.
Application
To apply, you should be:
- Familiar with, and interested in, the topics and trends covered by openDemocracy’s Tracking the Backlash investigative project
- Comfortable with interviewing a range of people from health experts to ordinary people
- Familiarity or interest in learning the basics of scientific research (to for example be able read and understand scientific journal articles)
- Interested in developing skills and experience producing investigations that have positive impacts on the health and rights of women and LGBTIQ people
- An excellent communicator and collaborative team member
- Able to join remote, virtual meetings online (with reliable internet access)
- Fluent in spoken and written English (with other language skills highly desirable)
- Passionate about the work we are doing and enthusiastic about joining an expanding feminist investigative journalism project
Click here to submit your application, in English, including your CV and examples of your previous work.
For more information, visit OpenDemocracy Fellowship.
