LIE DETECTORS PROJECT ASSISTANT, BRUSSELS – application deadline expired

Lie Detectors seeks a full-time Project Assistant for European news literacy project

Looking for a dynamic position on the front line of Europe’s fight against digital information and to #tacklefakenews? Lie Detectors, a member of the EU’s advisory High Level Group on Fake News, is looking for an energetic, tech-savvy, start-up minded and Brussels-based Project Assistant for our European media literacy campaign.

Lie Detectors trains and deploys working journalists into classrooms across Europe to help schoolchildren tell news fact from fiction and understand the many shades of bias in between. Aside from empowering children, it advocates for news literacy to become part of all European teacher-training curricula. The project recently completed its start-up phase and is moving into its first three-year operations phase, with further phases planned after 2020. Lie Detectors’ initial focus will be Germany and Belgium, with more countries slated to follow during the course of 2018. In the short time since its inception, Lie Detectors has seen high-level interest from educational authorities, media organisations and policymakers across Europe. It is a member of the EU’s new advisory High Level Expert Group on Fake News that advises the European Commission on steps to take against the spread and socio-political impact of disinformation.

This is a unique opportunity to help develop a new, fast-growing and high-profile movement to battle disinformation and foster critical thinking among young people and educators in Europe.

This is a Brussels-based position, with highly competitive pay and benefits.

Description:

The Project Officer is someone who thrives in a start-up environment and relishes the complexities of a rapidly-changing media landscape. Lie Detectors works on a hub-and-spokes system of central strategy and development and individual country programmes. The Project Assistant’s job is to help the central project along, updating the Lie Detectors website, Twitter account and Facebook presence and coming up with suggestions on how to maximise visibility among journalists, educators, students and policymakers. The position includes administrative tasks. The Project Assistant will report to senior management. S/he will have regular contact with a network of journalists and schools, as well as conference organisers. S/he will monitor news and events relevant to the Lie Detectors project in English, German and French and manage and update the project’s contacts database and calendars. The position includes a focus on research: the Lie Detectors Project Assistant will be required to become familiar with other European media literacy initiatives and funding opportunities. This is a role that will require original thinking, focus on detail and  to ensure the Lie Detectors model succeeds and continues to grow across Europe.

 

The successful applicant will

  • be fluent in English and either German or French, with excellent written skills in both languages;
  • have a flair for website management and be fluent working with WordPress and other content management systems;
  • be very comfortable working with and managing databases and spreadsheets;
  • be extremely detail-focused and adept at basic book-keeping;
  • be able to work independently and within a small team;
  • be highly adept at communicating remotely;
  • be educated to bachelor level or above and be able to provide references from employment;
  • be flexible and willing to take on new areas of responsibility as the project develops.

 

The successful applicant will ideally

  •  have knowledge of other European languages (preferably German);
  • have a background in journalism/communications/law;
  • be familiar with media landscapes of Belgium and Germany as well as the UK;
  • have some familiarity with education systems.

 

If interested, please send a CV and covering letter to jobs@localknowledge.be
with a subject line “LD Project Assistant“.

Deadline for submissions is 4 March 2018.