Communications - National Media Manager at Search For Common Ground’s International

Position Summary

Search for Common Ground (Search) seeks a professional, motivated, creative and well organised National Media Manager. This position holder is the head of the media department responsible to coordinate and supervise all media related work within the organization. S/he will ensure that the department objectives are fully meet and will lead all aspect of the organization growth relating to media. S/he will oversee a team of 5 to 10 radio and tv producers, journalists, regional media coordinators and social media officers spread across the country. S/he will ensure a positive and productive team spirit and will make sure that the staff within the department are qualified and meet the expectations of the organization.

The position holder will be responsible for designing Search’s media programming approach in such a way that it creates lasting change towards peace, social cohesion, mutual understandings, and contributes to changing attitude towards violence and conflicts and challenges stereotypes.  The National Media Manager will ensure the quality and relevance of existing media programs and will design new high-quality relevant radio, social media and television programs. The National Media Manager will also be involved in studies, evaluations and listenership surveys meant to measure the change triggered by Search’s media programming. In close collaboration with the DMEL department, s/he will plan the monitoring and evaluation activities related to media, such as yearly listenership surveys.

As a team leader for the media department, s/he will plan and lead team retreats, reflection meetings, capacity building for the team members. As a member of the Senior Management Team of Search-Nigeria, s/he will participate to project launch and close out workshops for each new project.

S/he will also be managing projects directly, whenever these projects are purely media-focused. The Media Manager will be responsible for overseeing all the radio and television production and liaising with the partner FM radio and television stations for broadcasting.

S/he will work under the supervision of the Country Director. The position will be based in Abuja and will include frequent travel to the field

Roles and Responsibilities

1.      Media Strategy

• Design Search’s Media program strategy for Nigeria, building on Search’s Common Ground approach to media techniques and manuals;  
• Ensure the quality, effectiveness and ultimately the impact of Search’s ongoing media program;
• Analyze conflict dynamics and feedback information into media program design and implementation
• Design new media programs that meet the purpose of the projects supporting them, as well as fit with Search-Nigeria’s strategy;
• Develop a social media for peacebuilding strategy for Search-Nigeria, and diffuse it in the newly-designed projects;
• Ensure SFCG’s media activities and productions are inclusive, and conflict and gender sensitive;
• Keep abreast of Search-worldwide media work, findings from evaluation of other countries’ media work including lessons learnt and best practices, and use the findings to enrich Search-Nigeria’s media strategy;
• Regularly monitor the quality, resonance, reach and response to Search’s media program, i.e. by organizing listenership surveys, focus group discussions, and /or listener/viewers’ groups sessions (in close collaboration with the DMEL team);
• Closely collaborate with the DMEL team to put in place a monitoring system for Search’s media program
• Participate in the design of new programs and projects to ensure that conflict-sensitive media programming is integrated in in Search’s media strategy for Nigeria;
• Participate in  project launch, mid-term reviews and close-out workshops whenever these include a media-program component
• Support the strategy and mission of SFCG in Nigeria, the region, and globally.

2.      Management of media projects and activities

• Plan the work of the media team across the country, including media productions and capacity building for media;
• Ensure the media productions are delivered on time and with high quality;
• Oversee the production and broadcast of Radio magazine and radio testimonies
• Ensure all media activities are documented by relevant staff. Produce a monthly report for the media department
• Verify and analyze work-plans, progress reports, final reports and other data for clarity, consistency and completeness
• Take the lead as project manager on Search’s media specific projects when the opportunity arises This entails managing the project staff, preparing costed workplans (yearly / monthly), facilitating the project launch and close-out workshops, monitoring budget versus actuals on a monthly basis, writing donor reports, collaborating with finance, HR logistics and DMEL departments to ensure the successful completion of the project(s) from start to end.

3.      Team Management and supervision

• Lead the hiring process for consultant, staff ( temporary and full time ) when needed, to ensure human resources meet the needs of the projects
• Build a roster of media consultants to ease the hiring of short-term support
• Supervise, guide, evaluate the team members, ensuring a high team spirit and excellent atmosphere
• Provide technical leadership and oversight for Media work and staff,

4.      Relationship with Media houses

• Maintain a network of media houses and media influencers at the national and regional level and a contact database
• Manage the partnership agreements with partner media houses: keep track of contract and their end dates, ensure timely renewal of agreements, keep track of support provided to each partner, negotiate airing rates and best airing / viewing times
• Support partner radio stations to produce programming based on the Common Ground approach
• Put in place a monitoring system to ensure partnership agreements with partner media houses are adhered to (i.e. timely production and airing of programs, quality of programs produced, etc.-
• coordinate program documentation and technical assistance to media partners in documentation
• Design  programing strategychnical leadership and oversight for partner media groups, i.e. local TV and radio stations partners
• Represent SFCG to partners, donors, and local and international organizations working in the Media sector
• Ensure SFCG has a key role in reinforcing media partner’s capacity to deliver appropriate services (this can be removed as much has been mentioned about capacity building).

As job descriptions cannot be exhaustive, the position holder may be required to undertake other duties that are broadly in line with the above key duties.

Required Profile

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in journalism, communication, media or related fields
• Additional education in conflict management, media for peacebuilding, communication for social change would be a strong asset;

Experience:

Essential

• At least 5 - 8 years’ experience as a media producer and/or journalist;
• At least 3 years’ experience in the field of media development, media for peacebuilding or communication for social change,
• At least 2 years of experience independently managing projects, preferably in the non-profit and NGO sector;
• Significant experience designing and conducting training courses in journalism and media;
• Experience in media program design, including drama, spots, news & current affairs;
• Track record in delivering effective media/communications/advocacy strategies in support of  campaigns and advocacy programmes;

Desirable:

• Experience working in a conflict resolution setting
• Experience working in a non-profit or similar environment
• Experience of partnership building, with experience of influencing stakeholders and establishing and maintaining strong partnerships;
• An excellent planner with deep knowledge and experience of project management tools and processes (project planning, workplans, budget planning, etc.)
• Organisational skills and attention to detail;
• Excellent use of Excel, excellent writing and analytical skills
• Well organized, dynamic and creative
• Excellent comprehension of the principles of conflict, conflict transformation and the role of media in peacebuilding
• A team leader, with a strong capacity to motivate oneself and others and build a team spirit;  
• Ability to work under pressure and in challenging environments
• Flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances
• Willingness to travel regularly to Search’s field offices
• Proficiency in written and spoken English, pidgin English; fluency in local language(s) a strong plus

Other Relevant Requirements

• Understand opportunities in key Nigeria media markets and thorough understanding of requirements of different kinds of media i.e. print, TV, radio, and online;
• Written and verbal communications skills including the ability to synthesise complicated policy issues into digestible products and to deal with both elite and popular media and specialist and non-specialist audiences;
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment and strong interpersonal skills;
• Commitment to Search’s aims and a clear understanding of the links between policy, lobbying, campaigning and media work and of how policy change can be achieved through effective advocacy;
• Ability to responding flexibly to opportunities and requests sometime with little notice;
• Ability to manage competing priorities in a rapidly changing environment;
• Demonstrate capacity to adapt to a multi-cultural context, and tolerance and respect to issues related to gender, religion, race and nationality;

• Treats all people fairly without favouritism and solves problems in collaborative ways