Based in the Journalism Department of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Africa Check seeks to appoint a Health Fellow (Full-time)
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.
About Africa Check
Africa Check is a non-profit organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. We work to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent. Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, said of us: “For democracies to function properly, for people to make informed decisions about their lives, the claims made in the public domain must be held up to scrutiny and their veracity checked openly and impartially. “I salute the work of Africa Check, as an important initiative engaging with journalists and citizens acros...&nb... continue reading
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Facebook/Africa Check Health Fellow
Aim and Benefits of Facebook/Africa Check Health Fellow
- 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
Requirements for Facebook/Africa Check Health Fellow Qualification
- 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)
Interview date, Process and Venue for Facebook/Africa Check Health Fellow
Should you not hear from us within two weeks from the closing date, please accept that your application was unsuccessful.
Application Deadline
August 31, 2020
How to Apply
Submit a CV with a cover letter explaining why you would be ideal for the position to [email protected] 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.
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