who we are

Title: Manager, The Complicated Narratives Project

Position type: Full time/contract

Compensation: $80,000-100,000, commensurate with experience

Location: Remote

Applications due: June 16, 5EST

Start date: July 8

Background: As the 2020 election approaches, many Americans are shocked and dismayed by the collapse of civic discourse. Polarization, tribalism, distrust and misunderstanding rule political life and are increasingly fraying the social fabric. We struggle to talk to one another, to listen respectfully, and even to acknowledge the full humanity of others with whom we strongly disagree. Problem-solving is sabotaged by the impulse to disparage, blame or demonize. 

For the most part, the news makes things worse. Journalists gravitate towards extreme voices and treat them as representative. We search for conflict, and focus on dysfunction and failure, often at superficial or “sound bite” levels, and often fail to probe more deeply to understand what’s underneath the conflict, like feelings of hurt, loss, alienation, anxiety, or fear. 

In 2018, SJN commissioned groundbreaking research that asked the following: What if journalists covered hot-button issues differently — based on how humans actually behave when they are polarized and suspicious? "Complicating the Narratives” (CTN), the resulting research and essay, powerfully explained what journalists can learn from experts in conflict mediation. It showed how journalists can do better to reveal the complexity and nuance in many stories — qualities that are essential to break through the oversimplified frames that are so polarizing. 

SJN is building on the research -- and on the excitement it generated -- with a project that will do the following: (1) help to change the view — which is false, but widespread among journalists — that the public actually seeks more conflict and polarization in political coverage; (2) equip journalists with the reporting skills to get underneath conflict to capture people’s experiences and motivations — instead of their positions — and open up more space for empathetic understanding (if not agreement) on divisive issues; and (3) seed pilot projects anchored in CTN principles in several communities.

Role description: SJN is seeking a project manager with a strong journalism background to lead this work. 

This person will be responsible for:

• Supporting SJN staff as they bring CTN principles into our work with news organizations;

• Helping newsrooms plan and host public engagement events that facilitate improved civic dialogue; 

• Stewarding exemplar projects centered on CTN practices in several geographically and demographically diverse communities;

• Planning and leading CTN skills trainings for journalists;

• Developing CTN training resources that reflect both the principles of the practice and learning from its real-life application;

• Guiding the expansion of the initiative -- including identifying, training, and deploying trainers who will expand adoption of the CTN approach by journalists and newsrooms

• Providing evaluative insights that will inform even greater scaling of this potentially transformative work. 

What we need: 

• A focused entrepreneur, someone who sees opportunities at every turn—and can execute upon them;

• Someone with an appetite for experimentation;

• A highly organized and skilled project manager;

• Serious journalism chops;

• Experience with facilitation and/or community engagement techniques.

Other important things:

• This is a one-year, full-time contract position. We will decide based on the results of the project’s initial phase whether to make the role permanent. 

• SJN is based in NYC, but this role could be anchored anywhere in the U.S. There will be significant travel.

• To kick off this work, SJN is hosting a 5-day workshop at a ranch in Emigrant, Montana, from July 15-19, focusing on mediation techniques and project strategy. We would love this person to join us for the week. 

• Diversity of perspective, identity, and experience are incredibly important to us: We want to reflect and serve the whole of society. As a result, we encourage diverse applicants to seek employment, and we make all employment decisions without regard to race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or any other factors protected by federal, state or local law. SJN is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Title: Engagement Coordinator, Mountain West

Position type: Part time/contract

Compensation: $30/hour (20 hours/week)

Location: Mountain West region

Applications due: June 15, 5EST

Start date: July  1

The Solutions Journalism Network is leading a mindset shift in journalism to encourage reporting about responses to social problems, not just the problems themselves. Solutions journalism provides a framework, grounded in journalistic ethics and informed by today’s professional challenges, that enables journalists to cover society more comprehensively, revealing possibilities for civic agency and connection.

In the Mountain West, SJN has led trainings and provided financial support for projects in over 50 local newsrooms. We also convened collaborative reporting projects in Montana ("The Montana Gap") and New Mexico/Colorado ("State of Change" and "Small Towns, Big Change").

In 2019, SJN is expanding on this regional by increasing community engagement around solutions reporting and creating a new cohort of civic actors (“solutions spotters”) who will track and share solutions stories and ideas across the region. The Mountain West Engagement Coordinator will lead this effort to elevate and engage with communities around local solutions reporting in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico. The Engagement Coordinator will also help develop meaningful metrics that can be used to evaluate our efforts to bring together community members to share new insights and ideas across the region. 

Skills and knowledge that might be useful in this position (not all are required): 

• Experience managing community engagement projects or working as a community organizer

• Knowledge of local journalism and/or experience working with journalists and newsrooms 

• Knowledge of online analytics and other potential measures of impact for engagement projects 

• Experience managing newsletters 

• Experience managing online groups

• Comfortable working independently and remotely 

• Excellent communication skills (email, phone, video chat, in-person, etc) 

• Familiarity with the history, current issues and culture of the Mountain West

• Experience working with diverse communities 

The Engagement Coordinator will work remotely and priority will be given to candidates based in a Mountain West state. You must have reliable access to internet that can support video conferencing. ***A tech stipend will be available***

𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Operations Associate, Practice Change

𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼: President / Head of Practice Change

𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲: Full time (non-exempt)

𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: NYC

𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗱𝘂𝗲: Monday, July 8th 5pm EST

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘠𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘑𝘕’𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.

Journalism is in urgent need of repair. Its preoccupation with dysfunction, corruption and pathology undermines public discourse, inhibits citizenship, and fails to provide society with key information to self-govern and self-correct.

The Solutions Journalism Network is leading a practice change to confront this failure, building capacity for reporting about responses to social problems. We’ve worked with over 10,000 journalists and 200 news organizations to cover society more comprehensively, revealing possibilities for civic agency and connection. 

SJN’s Practice Change team operates at the core of this mission. It introduces offers resources and activities that catalyze the adoption of solutions reporting and hosts a network of learning and sharing geared to rapidly spread this professional shift. Our relationships with diverse newsrooms and individual journalists yield many hundreds of reporting projects a year.

That means a lot of moving parts. The Operations Associate will track and support these activities, ensuring effective coordination and communication both among the Practice Change team and between the team and its expanding universe of journalism constituents. 

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹:

• Coordinate the centralized tracking of key activities and deliverables across the team
• Support the tracking of newsroom and journalist relationships 
• Support newsroom and journalist projects, including processing formal agreements; and tracking deliverables and reporting deadlines.
• Coordinate with SJN’s development function to meet grant reporting requirements
• Work with team members and SJN’s data analysis director to ensure integrity and coherence of our data
• Support logistics planning for certain SJN events 
• Direct internal team communications, ensuring that our colleagues – half of whom are based outside NYC – feel connected.

𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱:

• Strong entrepreneurial aptitude: The operations associate won’t be content to just do tasks as directed. This person will be geared to look out for problems – and then solve them.
• Passionate attention to detail. There are a lot of details in this role.
• Collaborative disposition: This person should get energy from working with others. 
• Outstanding communications, including impeccable spelling and grammar. Remember, we’re journalists – and we’re serving journalists.
• Facility with Salesforce or comparable relationship management system; Asana; and Dropbox – or an eagerness to learn.
• A passion for journalistic excellence and the role of journalism in society

• Real responsibility: you will be a trusted member of the team and the organization. You’ll weigh in on processes and connect our internal team members and external partners to the resources they’ll need to succeed.
• Impact: Your work will impact newsrooms and journalists across the US.
• Growth: You will report to the President / Head of Practice Change and will deepen your administrative, project management, data analysis, implementation, and process improvement skills 
• A fearless and relentless commitment to snack time as well as several caffeinated beverage options at SJN HQ

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:

This full-time position is based at our New York City headquarters with modest travel expected. The Solutions Journalism Network is a 501(c)3 organization offering competitive salary with health benefits; generous paid time-off and work-schedule flexibility; and a crew of the best (seriously!) colleagues.

Diversity of perspective, identity, and experience is important to us: We want to reflect and serve the whole of society. As a result we encourage diverse applicants to seek employment, and we make all employment decisions without regard to race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or any other factors protected by federal, state or local law. To request reasonable accommodation, contact Delaney Butler (delaney@solutionsjournalism.org).

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