Terms of Reference for Visual Story Telling Curriculum Development

Job Title: Curriculum Development for Visual story Telling  

Type of Contract: Individual Contractors 

Required number of candidates: 2

Language Required: English

Deadline for Application: October 21, 2021

Expected Starting Date: As soon as possible

Organizational Profile: MERSA Media Institute is a nonprofit media policy think tank. We work to help create vibrant, responsible and independent media institutions, professional unions and education centers through research, capacity building and institutional support in Ethiopia. 

Purpose

Mersa Media Institute in partnership with Deutsche Welle Akademie is committed to building the capacity of the local media houses through training with ultimate objective of improving the quality of journalism in Ethiopia. The improvement of quality journalism entails the production and reporting of quality content that brings into use various visual elements relevant for communicating compelling stories. Nevertheless, the production of quality content requires training on how to best produce and communicate stories that are of significantly important to the daily life of citizens. Given the mass production and distribution of information due to the availability of several channels and the shift in the media consumption behavior of audiences and communication technology of the day, the media should capitalize on creative use of diversified visual reporting techniques.  To this end, improving the skills of journalists in the production and distribution of visual content would be a step forward in increasing the quality of information delivered via both mainstream and social media. Thus, the purpose of this consultancy is to develop a curriculum on visual story telling that will be tested through pilot training and incorporate feedback from the workshop participants to further improve it for future use.  

 

Major duties and responsibilities 

• The team of consultants should develop a tailor -made curriculum for visual storytelling that considers the contexts of both mainstream and social media.
• The consultants should develop and submit a 30 pager curriculum at least a week before the pilot training workshop. 
• The curriculum should address the gaps in visual story telling within the local media houses as well as visual content production on digital media.
• The curriculum should consider interactive sessions to facilitate hands-on training on the techniques of visual story production.
• The module should sufficiently address visual aspects including but not limited to graphics, video, animations, images and other elements helpful to best tell stories.
• The module should consider how basic news reporting techniques could be enhanced via the creative use of visuals to effectively communicate stories.
• While developing the curriculum for visual storytelling, the consultants should work in close communication with Mersa Media Institute.
• The consultants are expected to submit an outline and conceptual framework of the curriculum/module/ and include feedback from MMI.
• The consultants should submit a unified module, incorporate feedback from MMI and submit the final product.
• The consultants are expected to pilot the module through training sessions in two days, take the lessons from the workshop participants to further develop the module and submit the final product to MMI.
• In addition to delivering the pilot training, the consultants should contribute in the selection of three training participants who will be assigned to develop stories, and mentor the awardees during the process of pitching story ideas, story development and production as well as provide technical support throughout the process.

Experience and required qualifications

Since the module development requires a combination of journalistic and technical expertise, the required qualifications and experiences are describe separately.

Candidate 1

Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, Communications, Literature, and Digital Journalism.

• A minimum of five years’ experience in the media sector preferably in news writing and reporting, editing and related activities.
• Experience in training and mentoring journalists in the process of pitching story ideas, story development and production.
• Experience in module development preferably on news production.
• NGO experience would be a plus.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Amharic languages
• Experience in training methodology

Candidate 2

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Diploma (certificate) in Videography, Graphic Design and Animation, and related fields.

• At least four years’ experience in multi-media production in the local media houses
• Well versed with media technology
• All rounded knowledge with content moderation platforms
• Good knowledge of training methodology and experience giving in hands-on training
• Excellent in using different software and applications for editing, designing and posting.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and Amharic languages.

How to apply?  Prospectors, please send your resume and cover letter to mersamultimedia@gmail.com or tsionmolla@outlook.com

MERSA Media Institute is an equal opportunity employer. We afford equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.