PRX Seeks Social Media Curator for Public Media Election Collaboration 2008

Jake posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 | Blog, Jobs, Press Releases

PRX Seeks Social Media Curator for Public Media Election Collaboration 2008

Position is available now and we are prioritizing applicants who can start immediately.

[UPDATE FEB 1, 2008: These positions have now been filled]

NOTE: We are also hiring for an Campaign Audio Curator position listed here.

Apply for this position online (but please read this description first):
http://www.jotform.com/form/73575827677

What’s the story?

The Social Media Curator will work with PRX as part of a CPB-funded public media collaboration to find, select, annotate, and promote citizen media and “user-generated content” from blogs, YouTube, podcasts and other sources. Selected content will be showcased on local and national public media websites.

The collaboration as a whole seeks to pool the editorial and technical resources of a consortium of public media organizations, including NPR, PBS NewsHour, PRX, American Public Media, Public Radio International and other partners and local stations. The collaboration will encompass a variety of online and on-air projects aimed at increasing public engagement during the election year.

Read the press release about the collaboration here.

The Social Media Curator position is project-based, starts immediately and runs through December 2008. It is expected to be a full-time commitment during the course of the contract. Fee is $40,000-55,000 depending on experience and start date.

What does the Curator do?

* assemble a focused collection of user-generated audio, video, photos and text about the election and related issues;
* recruit and oversee additional part-time station-based and partner curators who will help find and select relevant material;
* develop and articulate criteria for content selection, metrics and benchmarks for project tracking;
* lead collaboration with other project partners and participating in the internal “Knowledge Network” for project coordination;
* maintain a public project blog chronicling the process;
* other tasks as assigned, coordinated with PRX staff and collaboration partners.

Who are we looking for?

* Someone passionate but also discriminating about social media, fluent in “web 2.0″ and a super user of tools like del.icio.us, RSS, Flickr, YouTube, widgets, and blogs.
* A keen observer of electoral politics, Campaign ’08, people, issues, institutions, and platforms across the political spectrum.
* An organized and open-minded individual who is ready to have some fun with this project but with an eye on the bigger picture.
* The project can be managed virtually but there is a preference for a Boston area curator in order to work closely with the Harvard Square-based PRX team in person.

What’s the point?

Public media has a unique opportunity to cover Campaign 2008 and elevate public engagement around critical issues at stake nationally and locally.

The democratization of the tools for creating and distributing media has resulted in an explosion of conversation, connection and content. This in turn creates a critical need for ways to sift, filter and find value amidst irrelevant or even harmful expression.

One important role is to use public media’s presence and journalistic values to showcase and highlight examples of the diverse range of content and conversation already taking place online.

While the CNN/YouTube debates are the highest profile attempt so far to incorporate participatory media into coverage of Campaign 2008, there are few focused efforts to help audiences navigate the growing ocean of “user-generated content” to find relevant, important and revealing voices and perspectives.

This social media curating project is an experiment to explore approaches to this task, in the context of a critical national moment of a presidential election.

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