Climate and Energy Researcher, Media Matters for America – Washington, DC

Organization: Media Matters for America

Position Title: Researcher – Climate & Energy Team

Location: Washington, DC

Hours and Compensation: Full-time

 Application Deadline: Open until filled

Description: Media Matters for America — a progressive, Washington, D.C-based, nonprofit research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media — seeks a Researcher for the Climate and Energy team.

The Researcher will monitor relevant print, online, and broadcast media for conservative misinformation and will be primarily responsible for generating long-term quantitative analyses of how climate and energy issues are covered in the media, as well as rapid-response rebuttals to misinformation that is being pushed through the media.

Responsibilities:

• Monitoring: The Researcher/Reporter is responsible for identifying, researching, and rebutting false narratives that advance a conservative agenda. S/he will often be required to compile conservative media coverage of climate and energy issues for distribution.
• Documenting: The Researcher/Reporter is responsible for summarizing the media they monitor toMedia Matters‘ internal archive, and for flagging emerging and persistent strands of misinformation.
• Quantitative Analysis: S/he will identify opportunities where quantifying news coverage helps to describe how the media reports on climate change and then conceptualize and apply sound methodological practices to data projects that capture the nature of coverage. S/he will be able to write key findings for a public audience and on deadline.
• Rapid Response: S/he is responsible for researching and responding to misinformation found during monitoring by conceptualizing and writing comprehensive fact checks, narrative blog post or high-impact multimedia products.
• Narrative Building: The Researcher will also be responsible for tracking larger media narratives and the key strands of misinformation the team is engaged in and to help come up with ways to advance those narratives.
• Editing: S/he will also often edit content using appropriate AP and MMFA style guides.

Qualifications:

• A Bachelor’s Degree in environmental science, journalism, public policy, or related field. Graduate degree is a plus.
• 1-3 years social science experience that includes conducting quantitative analysis and using Microsoft Excel or similar data analysis tools. Experience in conducting content analysis for publication is preferred.
• Ability to quickly research and write grammatical, accurate and compelling articles.
• Familiarity with current events and media trends. Strong interest in climate science and various policy approaches to addressing climate change.
• High comfort with Excel, basic HTML, and Google Documents. Experience working with Nexis or Factiva is preferred.
• A self-starter with a demonstrated penchant for taking initiative who can generate creative content ideas.
• Ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced environment, has demonstrated ability to work under tight deadlines and works well in a collaborative team setting. The candidate is expected to work on rapid response efforts while simultaneously working on long-term projects.
• Shared commitment to progressive ideals and environmental protection.

How to Apply:  Please email a resume and cover letter in plain text or PDF format to [email protected]. No phone calls, please. We can respond only to candidates whom we are contacting for an interview.