Broadcast Journalist (Digital) at BBC

Job Reference: BBC/TP/788768/22142
Location: Lagos
Contract Type: Permanent - Full Time
Department: Africa Hub
Start Date: November 2017
Reports to: Senior Broadcast Journalist Digital
Job Category: Journalism
Business Unit: News: W2020Role

Context

• The BBC World Service is embarking on an exciting journey with unprecedented investment in digital content for Africa and your role will be critical to us in meeting our ambitions.
• The BBC will be launching a new digital innovation hub in Lagos with the ambition to develop digital journalism in Africa.
• Your role as Broadcast Journalist will play a key role in helping our content reach underserved audiences – such as younger, more female and more diverse demographics in Africa.
• We have an exciting opportunity to create new forms of digital storytelling and journalism that reaches 111 million people in Africa.
• As a Broadcast Journalist you will join a new multi-disciplinary digital team in Lagos made up of news gatherers , designers, software developers and social media specialists who will be working with journalists working across 12 language services (English, Amharic , Tigrinya, Afaan Oromo, Swahili, Somali, French, Great Lakes , Pidgin, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa)

Job Purpose

• BBC Africa aims to make, explain and connect African and global stories by providing a unique insight into the main stories of the day in original formats.
• The African service digital offer consists of websites, mobile sites and social media with all services providing multimedia content in text, video, interactive and audio for radio, online, TV, mobile and social media platforms

Key Responsibilities

• To work as part of the editorial/production team in Lagos for the BBC Africa Digital Innovation Hub 
• The journalist is expected to have strong writing skills and proven understanding of African news, current affairs, social media and it’s advantageous if the candidate boasts a thematic specialism. 
• The journalist will be expected to originate, prepare and publish pages of multi-media news, background, analysis, features and video. 
• A key part of the job will be to work closely with colleagues from BBC Africa, who work in English and other languages, to ensure the best of their radio, TV, online and social content is made available to the African hub and wider BBC and make sure that content conforms to BBC editorial standards. 
• To produce and commission short-form and long-form digital content 
• To gather content for digital platforms from the field
• Contribute to the BBC News website’s Africa desk. The journalist will build on our existing African coverage, including the Africa Live page 
• To create digital video, write for our website and other social platforms and promote our content in an engaging format with the audience. 
• They will need to have talent and energy.
• They will be able to find imaginative and original ways to broaden our agenda and play a full part in discussing how best to cover the day’s news, both with colleagues from Online, BBC Africa and other BBC departments. 
• To work with graphic designers to produce creative and original graphics sequences which can be shared by other BBC departments 
• Writing and commissioning news stories, analysis and features on African issues as events dictate, using text, video and audio 
• Working closely with colleagues from BBC Africa to identify promising story ideas and content, and help adapt it for online audiences where appropriate 
• Thinking up original ways to tell stories, especially for existing and emerging digital platforms

Required Knowledge, Experience and Skills

• Proven text journalism writing and editing skills, using outstanding English
• Broad knowledge of and interest in African affairs 
• Ability to produce clean news stories, under the tightest of deadlines 
• Ability to produce original, richly-illustrated features which demonstrate a deep understanding of the issue 
• Ability to work within a team, and provide leadership to less experienced colleagues  Good understanding of social media and user generated content, and of different digital platforms and devices 
• Comprehensive knowledge of the BBC’s editorial policy and practice and of the law relating to broadcast and interactive journalism 
• Proven commitment to equality and diversity and the maintenance of health and safety standards

Competencies
(The term competency refers to the skills, knowledge and core behaviours required to perform a job, or an element of it, successfully. Qualifications usually measure outcomes or what is done, competencies measure how you do it. The interview questions are structured around the role’s core competencies):

• Editorial Judgement: Makes the right editorial and policy decisions based upon a clear understanding of the BBC’s distinctive news agenda, the requirements of news and current affairs coverage as well as those of the programme departments. 
• Creative thinking: Translates news and current affairs into high quality coverage through a detailed understanding of the requirements of the BBC News website and possession of the necessary writing, directing and reporting skills. 
• Managing relationships and team working: Able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people. Works cooperatively with others to be part of a team, as opposed to working separately or competitively. 
• Subject Knowledge: Demonstrates an expanding knowledge of international news and current events in general and specific areas of expertise in particular, including language skills. Develops increasingly useful and exclusive sources of information.
•  Analytical Skills: Simplifies complex problems, processes or projects. Identifies causal relationships and constructs frameworks for problem-solving and/or development.  Planning and Organising: Thinks ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others. Prioritises and plans activities taking into account all the relevant issues such as deadlines, staffing and resource requirements. 
• Decision Making: Is ready and able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of decisions. 
• Influencing Others: Presents sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Draws from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change. 
• Communication: The ability to get one’s message understood clearly by adopting a range of styles, tools and techniques appropriate to the audience and the nature of the information

Package Description

• Contract: Continuing
• Salary: Local Terms and Conditions Apply