TEDX Media Fellow (Science/Technology)
Job Overview
Are you a good listener who discovers knowledge in unexpected places? Are you a media junkie with a discerning eye? Are you driven to create media and skilled at navigating a variety platforms? If you’ve answered yes to any or all of these questions and are looking for your next opportunity, TED and TEDx are launching a media fellowship for emerging professionals. This is a six month training program for early career professionals interested in jumpstarting a career in digital media.
Over the last 8 years, the TEDx program has grown rapidly, enabling more than 13,000 independently organized events in more than 170 countries. These events range from highly produced gatherings in world capitals to small events in rural communities. Talks at these events are filmed and posted online. As a result, there are now more than 100,000 TEDx talks on YouTube, and they were viewed 500MM times last year; less than half of these were delivered in English. At this stage, we are solidifying a highly organized, globally minded curation team to keep up with the growth and to maximize the impact of these ideas from around the world.
We’re looking for writers, journalists, curators and media makers with specific focus and deep knowledge of a field related to science and/or technology. This could include anything from artificial intelligence, computer science, robotics and engineering to astronomy, botany and health sciences. If you feel qualified to gut-check a TEDx talk about a bleeding edge cancer cure that’s on the horizon or to defend the programming potential of your favorite talk about the mathematical modeling of quasars, we encourage you to apply. What’s crucial is the ability to parse the vast selection of TEDx science talks and discern the ideas worth spreading from the ones that need further peer review.
The program is structured in two distinct parts:
Content Evaluation & Programming (75%)
The core of TED’s mission is to spread ideas, primarily through video. You’ll be responsible for reviewing 10-20 TEDx talks per day and determining if, when and how this idea should be shared on TED’s primary distribution platforms, eg. TED.com. You’ll work closely with key members of the media, content and editorial teams and will need to demonstrate a passion for and specialized knowledge in one of the above topic areas.
Content Creation (25%)
During this 6-month term, you will be expected to contribute written articles to at least one of TED’s distribution points, ie. IDEAS Blog, TED Blog, LinkedIn
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree
- 1-2 years of relevant work experience OR a master’s degree in a relevant field;
- Understand and value the difference between TEDx and TED;
- Fluent English with excellent writing skills
Nice to have:
- Fluency in another language
- Data analysis
- Social media savvy, specifically YouTube and Facebook
- Video editing skills
To Apply: Please submit a resume AND a cover letter that (a) explains why this program is a good fit for you, (b) includes links to samples of your previous work, eg. an article you wrote or a vlog you contribute to, and (c) demonstrates your depth of knowledge in one of the topic areas. Applications without cover letters will not be considered.
Start Date: January 2020
End Date: June/July 2020
Hours per week: 40