Investigative Journalism Expert

Assignment Description: Preparing and delivering one full-day training workshop on investigative journalism.

Assignment Location: Beirut, Lebanon

Employment Type: Short-term consultancy

Assignment Period: May–June 2024

Level of Effort: Two expert days   

How to apply: Please send the application documents to [email protected], cc’ing [email protected], by 21 April 2024, 11:59 PM local time. 

DRI is looking for an experienced journalist to deliver one full-day training workshop to ten Lebanon-based content creators.

Background

Democracy Reporting International (DRI) is a non-partisan, independent, not-for-profit organisation registered in Berlin, and established in Lebanon since 2016. DRI promotes political participation of citizens, accountability of state bodies and the development of democratic institutions worldwide. Democratic discourse is the basis of our mission and vision. In our work, we facilitate discussion and exchange about democratic government and the need for a continuous discourse adhering to democratic rules.    

In the framework of its project entitled: “Independent Voices: Supporting Innovative & Citizen-centric Content Creation in Lebanese Media”, DRI is facilitating collaboration between a network of journalists, media makers, and digital content creators following a rights-based approach to shed light on political reform issues and the expansion of civic space. The project aims at countering mis- and disinformation and the spread of fake news in mainstream media. To do so, we envision a young media community that works together to deliver high-quality media content about topics that are typically overlooked by mainstream media.  

In this context, DRI is recruiting an expert in Investigative Journalism to deliver one full-day training workshop to a group of 10 content creators between May and June 2024. The workshop will equip journalists with the skills necessary to investigate and report on overlooked news stories. Participants will learn about the ethics, tools, and practices of investigative reporting, and how those can be used along with advanced internet searches, social media monitoring, and access to information law to develop a compelling investigative report. Participants will also be introduced to good practices and effective ways to structure and present their stories.

Your duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of DRI’s Programme Manager, the Expert will:   

• Develop interactive and detailed training modules, a training session plan, and all accompanying background materials (½ expert day);   
• Prepare pre- and post-training test modules to be shared with the participants before and after the training sessions, once validated by DRI;  
• Deliver one full-day training workshop for 10 content creators following an interactive, engaging approach, e.g., discussion activities, and exercises (one expert day);   
• Once the training is completed, submit a training report summarising the training outcomes and the pre-and post-training test results, reflecting the trainees’ increase in knowledge as per the template provided by DRI (½ expert day).   

 Your skills and experience  

• A university degree in media studies, communications, journalism, or other related field; 

• At least 7 years of media experience;
• At least 5 investigative pieces published;
• Proven track record as a trainer on media-related topics;
• Excellent verbal and writing communication skills; 
• Gender and cultural sensitivity; 
• Working proficiency in Arabic and English.