Deadline: 18-Jul-21
Do you want to help fight misinformation, disinformation and hate speech in Kenya? If yes, then apply for this Fact-Checking Fellowships.
Code for Africa (CfA) is offering intensive fact-checking fellowships for journalists, newsroom managers and civil society (CSO) researchers in Kenya.
Successful applicants will learn fact-checking techniques through hands-on mentorship and project-based learning.
The fellowships are offered in partnership with Deutsche Welle Akademie (DWA) and are open to both freelancers and full-time employees in media or watchdog CSOs in Kenya.
The fellows will be mentored by a team of international experts, supported by Kenyan-based fact-checking professionals. The programme is designed to include a combination of modular step-by-step lessons, alongside one-on-one peer mentoring.
Fellows will use their new skills and tools to produce real world fact-checks or newsroom management assignments using CfA’s task-driven ‘learn-by-doing’ model.
Fellows will also be given the opportunity to launch new fact-checking projects for their organisations, with additional technical support from CfA’s team of editorial and technology experts.
This team includes senior editors and specialists from Africa’s leading fact-checking organisation, PesaCheck, with teams spread across 14 African countries, including Kenya
The Fellowships:
- Fact-checkers: CfA is offering a four-month, part-time fellowship to active, full-time freelance journalists/researchers, who have the support of an institutional partner (such as a newsroom or watchdog NGO), and pioneering start-up entrepreneurs (in both the non-profit and social enterprise space) and/or strategists/pioneers tasked with setting-up a fact-checking desk for their organisations.
- Newsroom managers: CfA is offering a four-month part-time fellowship for newsroom/institutional managers focused on equipping them with the tools and techniques for setting-up and managing internal production systems for sustainable fact-checking desks/teams or for launching new products/services.
Benefits
Fellows will learn the following practical skills:
- Fact-checking basics: Understanding fact-checking methodology & taxonomy, and fact-checking techniques, using a range of specialised tools.
- Audience engagement: Understanding how to create unique topics/themes for specific audiences, and how to build audience engagement and feedback systems.
- Production systems: Understanding how to design editorial/research workflow processes, tooling and staffing strategies, for streamlined integration into the host organisation’s wider production processes.
- Policy frameworks: Understanding how to apply international ethical and professional guidelines for quality assurance and industry accreditation, with special emphasis on applying the International Fact-Checking Network’s (IFCN) Code of Principles.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- You must be an established journalist/manager in a newsroom, watchdog NGO/social enterprise, or research/policy institute.
- You must commit to publish/broadcast your fact-checks on an appropriate public platform.
- You must be based in Kenya, with demonstrable local experience/insights.
- You must be fluent in English, the language of tuition and mentorship. Your fact-checks may be produced/published in another language, but translated copies must be made available in English.
- You must have access to a home laptop/computer with internet connectivity, to be able to participate in online classes and benefit from the digital mentorship and electronic resources.
- You must commit to attending all classes and completing all lesson assignments during the four months.
- You must have a letter of support from your newsroom manager/editor (if you’re a staff reporter) or a letter of commitment/authorisation from a partner newsroom or publishing partner institution (if you’re a freelancer or CSO researcher), to ensure that your work reaches a meaningful audience.
- You must commit to sharing your new skills and insights within your organisation and wider journalistic/research fraternity, by demonstrating your projects and techniques to peers.
- You do not work for government institutions, state-funded media or paramilitary organisations.
For more information, visit https://medium.com/code-for-africa/call-for-applications-for-fact-checking-fellowships-in-kenya-ddfc28a825f2