Interactive Journalist, Visual Journalism WS Languages, (Africa) Hub at BBC

Job Reference BBC/TP/672269/22186
Location: Lagos
Contract Type: Permanent - Full Time
Job Category: Journalism
Grade: Local terms and conditions
Duration: Continuing
Division: BBC World Service
Department: Africa Hub
Reports to: Senior Broadcast Journalist, (Lagos) Hub

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 Interactive Journalist will play a key role in helping our content reach under-served 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 an Interactive 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)

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.

The successful candidate will work as part of the new Visual Journalism team within the Africa Hub to generate fresh and original global stories.

This role has close links to the Visual Journalism team, whose aim is to unlock the potential of multimedia storytelling across platforms - desktop, tablet, mobile and TV. Using graphical tools and combining those with an understanding of data and journalistic rigour, the team aims to produce powerful visual explanations that improve understanding of the news, and which audiences across the world highly appreciate.

The team brings together online journalists, graphic designers and developers with TV designers and craft editors, all serving UK and Global audiences, including those of WS Languages.

Job Purpose

• An experienced interactive journalist is needed to join the new Visual Journalism team for the Africa Hub, which will also be integrated by a designer and a developer.
• You will be a proactive self-starter, brimming with original ideas on how to best apply interactive journalism.
• You will be eager to find ways to compliment news stories, when appropriate, or to identify original stories that can be carried by all outlets.
• You will be able to delve beneath the headlines and then confidently and succinctly explain the fuller picture to our audience as well as other colleagues from BBC News.
• You will be excited about developing the way that data is interpreted and presented online on platforms from mobile to TV.
• You will be focused on creating content that will engage our global audience, providing them with useful, and where possible, personalised information.
• You will be working closely and productively with journalists, developers and designers - producing some of the most innovative content on the World Service Group websites.
• You will also be working closely with planning editors and audiences’ teams across the World Service Group and News, to make the most of the content produced, encourage editorial best practice and the correct use of visual journalism tools.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• To enhance and explain major news stories.
• To research, write, co-ordinate, manage and deliver to tight deadlines the production of high quality added value digital content including: information graphics, maps, graphical interactives, multimedia explainers, data journalism, data visualisation and other bespoke-format web content
• To generate ideas for data-driven stories and for how they might be developed and visualised for a variety of platforms
• To collaborate with reporters, editors, and the fellow team's designer and developer to bring those stories to publication
• To participate and contribute to the wider Visual Journalism community, with the Central BBC News Visual Journalism team and the other VJ Languages teams
• To make the most of data and visual journalism tools and workflows to create content of high editorial and technical standard
• To be aware of relevant advances in web technology and how they can enhance the team’s output
• Support fellow Africa Hub journalists to make the most of the available tools, to improve commissioning and workflows.
• To represent the Africa Hub within the BBC Visual Journalism community

Required knowledge, Skills and Experience
Journalism:

• Journalism experience - either online / radio / TV - ability to spot a story and make sound editorial judgements
• Ability to write in outstanding English as well as at least one of the key Africa Hub’s languages well enough to write stories / backgrounders as required
• Be able to write /create content for social media - awareness of different platforms - and what is relevant for each region

Data:

• Numerate - ability to understand spreadsheets and create them in Excel and Google Drive for stories / data sharing
• Knowledge of data sources and FOI procedure, if relevant, as it pertains to your region
• A strong grasp of how to clean and query data
• A good understanding of statistics and statistical analysis

Production:

• Be able to use basic design software (like Photoshop) to make composite images as well as create and update and create basic templates for static content for social media – whichever platforms are most relevant
• Good visual awareness and web production experience
• Experience of visualising data and using visualisation tools
• Demonstrable experience of working to tight deadlines

Also desirable knowledge, skills and experience:

• Digital mapping skills to produce maps for digital outlets (like use of Q-GIS to create
• heatmaps and pointmaps for output - which can be edited by design and shared with broadcast, CartoDB)
• Knowledge of advanced features in Excel like pivot tables
• Knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL) and of script languages such as Python and/ or R to query databases
• Knowledge of data visualisation tools such as Tableau, Refine and Fusion Tables
• Experience of video production and motion graphics software (like Final Cut Pro and After
• Effects) to create simple explainer videos and animations
• Experience in the production of long form digital features (like http://goo.gl/GHdurD), with tools like Shorthand or similar
• Experience of negotiating with public officials for data and open records
• Experience of gathering information via Freedom of Information requests

Personal attributes:

• Excellent English oral and written communication skills
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills to be able to establish rapport with people at all levels within the BBC, work as part of a team and motive others
• Ability to empathise with the needs of WS Languages’ teams
• Ability to work calmly under pressure
• Ability to troubleshoot problems
• Willingness to multi-skill and work with multi-skilled teams
• Ability to contribute ideas to editorial forums

Competencies
The following competencies (behaviours and characteristics) have been identified as key to success in the job. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate these competencies:

• Subject Knowledge - Demonstrates an expanding knowledge of news, current events, and social
• media platforms. Develops increasingly useful and exclusive sources of information.
• Editorial Judgement - Demonstrates balanced and objective judgement based on a thorough understanding of BBC editorial guidelines, target audience, programme and department objectives. Makes the right editorial decisions, taking account of conflicting views where necessary.
• Planning and Organising - Is able to think 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 and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements.
• Analytical Thinking - Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks, for problem-solving and/or development.
• Creative Thinking - Is able to transform creative ideas/impulses into practical reality. Can look at existing situations and problems in novel ways and come up with creative solutions.
• 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.
• Influencing and Persuading - Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. Can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change.
• Managing relationships and team working - Able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people across News. Works cooperatively with others to be part of a team, as opposed to working separately or competitively.