Trainer for Local Mediа

The USAID Democratic Governance East Activity (DG East) aims to strengthen the connection and trust between citizens and their government in eastern and southern Ukraine by promoting an inclusive civic identity, common civic value and a unified Ukraine by addressing the divisive impacts of Russia’s aggression, and the consequences of ongoing armed conflict through increased citizen participation, improved service delivery and more responsive governance. DG East works to (1) develop greater acceptance of a shared civic culture based on common values and understandings, and to (2) increase participation to improve Ukraine’s governance and reform processes and help to resolve community problems. DG East will provide opportunities for citizens to engage with their government, provide government with resources to support their citizens, and create opportunities for citizens of Ukraine to create hope in their future and positive chаnges in their daily lives. DG East activities are implemented across four regional portfolios and two physical office locations in Kyiv and Staryi Sambir.  

The city of Mykolaiv is also in the focus of DG East project. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine, the city has become the closest to the frontline Ukrainian government controlled regional center. Every day the city suffers from air raids and artillery attacks, which destroy housing and municipal infrastructure. Despite this, Mykolaiv receives refugees from the occupied and war-torn territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The city provides temporary shelter to all internally displaced persons (hereinafter – IDPs), provides temporary housing, food and necessary administrative services. In addition, the city has also become a logistics hub for humanitarian and military cargo. This was facilitated not only by the frontline location of the city, but also by the fact that Mykolaiv developed as an industrial center and port, which caused the presence of a significant number of premises like warehouses and storage in the city.

The frontline location of the city from the very beginning of the full-scaled invasion determined that Mykolaiv became one of the “entry points” to the territory where hostilities are ongoing. This caused that journalist began arriving to the city to perform editorial tasks in the front areas. After the liberation of right-bank part of the Kherson region the city remains safer place for conducting media work. Nowadays Kherson – the closer city to the frontline has no electricity and water supply, and lack of cell phone and internet connection. New circumstances had a definite effect on the conditions of journalistic activity in the Mykolaiv. Martial law dictated new requirements for the content and type of information messages, set a number of restrictions on the disclosure of information disseminated in the Ukrainian local and national as well as in foreign media, changed key speech narratives and restrictions to ensure information and cybersecurity of Ukraine’s media space.

Responding to the challenges of martial law, the community of Mykolaiv city, in particular the independent journalistic community, the City Council and civil society initiatives, came up with a joint initiative to create a crisis media center (CMC) in Mykolaiv. The purpose of the CMC is to create a platform for joint work of journalists of state and independent media, which will help to coordinate journalists’ work in frontline areas and provide informational support to national and foreign journalists who have arrived to perform editorial tasks. In addition, the CMC will have an equipped space for journalists from different media to work together, which will be available for creation their own media content and events in wartime. In peacetime, the CMC will be used also for conducting public events and promoting and maintaining participatory democracy processes. At peacetime the CMC’s capacity will be used to provide students of journalism with a basis for practice. DG East supports this initiative of Mykolaiv city community and promotes the creation of CMC.

Purpose of Assignment:

As part of organizing emergency assistance to the Mykolaiv City Community in countering the affects of Russia’s unprovoked invasion DG-East will support Mykolaiv and region media representatives in creating Crisis Media Center (hereinafter – CMC). CMC is an initiative of independent media specialists and professionals. The CMC will become a common space for the work of representatives of independent and government-controlled media, public events, and networking. The CMC also planned as a support base for national and international media journalists during Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

To ensure the proper level of training of local journalists for work in the conditions of hostilities and the constant threat of shelling, a media school is planned to be held as part of the support for the CMC initiative. As the hostilities are accompanied by an active information war – anti-Ukrainian propaganda and the dissemination of false information to destabilize the situation in the front-line territories and undermine the population’s confidence in the ability of the Ukrainian legitimate government to effectively cope with the consequences of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, DG-East is looking for a Media Trainer to support the Mykolaiv CMC in conducting the online media school for Mykolaiv local media representatives specifically conducting informational and practical training sessions in recognition of fakes, countering manipulations, recognition of information-psychological operations, providing information hygiene and security and crisis communications.

As part of the activity, the Trainer will provide the coordination and support services for education and training for local media representatives about recognition and counteracting manipulation and disinformation, countering propaganda, ensuring information hygiene and crisis communications.

Detailed Tasks:

Based on the CMC framework, the Trainer will prepare and conduct training sessions (8-10 full day online trainings, curriculum and training materials for each training, after-training question-answer session) for representatives of local media (independent media outlets and bloggers, NGOs which conduct media activities, representatives of local authorities’ press-offices) in the following areas:

• recognition and countering fakes, disinformation, and propaganda
• information-psychological operations – nature of the phenomenon, it’s types, methods of detection and counteraction
• models of communications and crisis communications
• information security and information hygiene – basics, rules, and recommendations for improving of information security
• safety rules in social media during the war

Deliverables:

• Curriculum (summaries with references to specific professional sources, up to 10 pages, with key points on each training, in Ukrainian, in PDF format) for media trainings (information and practical part for each) on below mentioned topics:
• recognition and countering fakes, disinformation, and propaganda;
• information-psychological operations – nature of the phenomenon, it’s types, methods of detection and counteraction;
• models of communications and crisis communications;
• information security and information hygiene – basics, rules, and recommendations for improving of information security;
• safety rules in social media during the war;
• Conducted 10 (depends on the background of the trainings’ audience) full day online training sessions, 2 after-training question-and-answer sessions for representatives of Mykolaiv local media.
• Consolidated tables with data on the results of the conducted trainings for each training separately.
• Final report on provided assistance to local media representatives.

Experience:

• Education in journalism, public or social studies, or communications is required.
• At least 10 years of experience in journalism, crisis communications and countering fakes and propaganda content.
• Experience in crisis communications, informational and communicational security is a must.
• Thorough knowledge in the field of communication models and crisis communications, information-psychological operations, and manipulations.
• Proven experience in delivery training services.
• Similar successful projects implemented for international donor organizations will be an advantage.
• Ability to write in English and Ukrainian documentation appropriate for the named deliverables in a concise and clear manner.
• Awareness of regional context in Mykolaiv region and martial law.

Supervision and Reporting:
Supervision to be made by the DG East Activity Implementation Manager (South Portfolio). Final deliverables to be approved by the Regional Director.

Level of Effort:
A total of 30 days of LOE including regional travel days to Mykolaiv (up to 5 working days), if needed and permitted due to martial law restrictions.

Duty station:

During ongoing active war, the Trainer for Local Media will work remotely.

Timeframe:
The timeframe for this assignment will be December 15, 2022 – March 31, 2023. 

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV to [email protected]   with Trainer for Local Media listed in the subject line by November 30, 2022. Candidates must ensure that CV does *not* include a photograph, date of birth, and/or marital status information.

No telephone inquiries, please. Candidates will be considered on a rolling basis, and only finalists will be contacted.

Chemonics is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, or other non-merit factors.