Story Mentor (Philippines Based)

Who We Are

Thibi is a data and design consultancy that specialises in building interactive web-based data tools and visualizations. Our team has been active in Southeast Asia’s civic tech and open data community for many years, with extensive experience in data visualization, data-driven web development, and data literacy training. We have worked with organizations such as Thomson Reuters Foundation, Internews, Open Knowledge Foundation, and The Asia Foundation. Thibi is currently growing into a remote team of designers, developers and data experts based remotely across Southeast Asia.

The Role

We’re looking for an experienced long-form narrative journalist to join our training team and mentor participants of our Environmental Data Journalism Academy.

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Familiarization with the Internews Data Journalism Curriculum

The Story Mentor will be part of a training team of five data specialists and two data journalism instructors who will be localizing and delivering the Internews Data Journalism Curriculum. The Story Mentor must become familiar with the inquiry-based approach to story development taught in the course in order to be able to mentor effectively. Story Mentors may be asked to attend specific sessions of the Data Journalism Academy.  

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Collaboration with Media Houses for Story Publication 

Collaboration may include individually contacting and maintaining relationships with journalists participating in the Fellowship, meeting with their editors and and working with editors during the program to ensure the story meets both the editorial standards of the Academy and the media house.  For freelancers, the Story Mentor will also be involved in pitching to media houses. 

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Mentoring Trainees through Story Pitching and Production

The Data Story Mentor will be a crucial team member in mentoring participants through the Masterfile process, story pitching and the production of selected stories. Along with the Data Trainer, they will participate in evaluating pitches, shaping the background research, hypotheses, questions, connecting with and preparing interview questions for human sources, simplifying complex findings,  storyboarding, crafting the narrative and editing stories. 

Must Have Skills

• Extensive experience producing long-form journalism - The Thibi team has a lot of data experience but we will rely on you to guide us through the world of narrative journalism in the Philippines and the region, especially around environmental issues. We require you to provide at least 3 work samples of long-form journalism, which you have either written or edited. 
• Familiarity with data or investigative journalism methods - We follow an inquiry-based approach to teaching data journalism so you must be comfortable with developing a hypothesis for an investigation and following a transparent, defensible research process to investigate the story. We are open to candidates from any educational background, but relevant experience in long-form data investigative journalism is a must.
• Connections with sources on environmental issues - We will look to the Story Mentor to help identify and reach out the environmental experts, victims of environmental damage, responsible corporate and government officials and individuals engaged in trying to mitigate environmental damage for Fellows to interview during the development of their stories.
• Ability to generate story ideas - We are looking for someone who can bring together  journalists’ beat, pressing public interest topics, data and external sources and imagine a compelling interactive product. 
• Experience editing and mentoring - The most important outcome of the program is journalists with the ability to return to their newsrooms and apply what they have learned to produce regular data-driven accountability reporting. Your experience in mentoring other journalists will be crucial to achieving this result. 
• Connections with Filipino media organizations - This role involves reaching out to journalists and editors across the Filipino media landscape and convincing them that environmental data journalism is a good investment of their time and resources. 
• Interpersonal skills - You’re friendly, empathetic, and genuinely willing to help people with their problems. You’re an expert listener who tends to understand where people are coming from.
• Communication skills - You express yourself in a clear and concise manner. You can choose the right language in the right context to explain complicated things in simple ways. Since you will be reaching out to journalists in Filipino newsrooms, both written and spoken communication skills will be crucial.
• Language skills - You demonstrate native or bilingual fluency (both spoken and written) in English and Filipino. You are a stickler for good grammar and syntax, which is reflected in the pieces you write and edit.

Nice to Have Skills

• Advanced investigative or data journalism skills – If you have worked as a fulltime investigative or data journalist or graduated from an investigative or data journalism program, we are happy to integrate your methodology into our curriculum.
• Multimedia storytelling experience - We expect participants to come from a range of media - print, online, television, radio, podcasting - so the more experience you have producing content across different platforms, the better. 
• Environmental journalism expertise - The course will focus on selected environmental issues that the Filipino public would better understand through data journalism so any special knowledge of climate, biodiversity, food security, etc. will be an asset. 
• Interactive storytelling experience - If you have worked as part of a team to produce multimedia content into a compelling story package, let us know. 
• Advanced data analysis skills - Familiarity with performing data analysis in SQL, R, or Python, and no-code data visualization tools such as Datawrapper and Flourish is not necessary but will definitely be helpful.

The Culture

Taking initiative – We are self-starters. Our team members take responsibility and act on initiative instead of waiting for instructions.‍

Broad interests – We’re a tech company, but our team members entertain a wide range of interests from poetry and surfing to lacquerware and art history. We deeply value people with interests beyond technology.

‍Diversity – We welcome and cherish teammates and collaborators who represent a variety of backgrounds and life experiences, be it culture, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

The Details

This is a fully remote, full time position. It is a 3-6 months contract with a possibility of extension. Thibi is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability or sexual orientation.

Interested? Please send your CV and cover letter to work@thibi.co. Make sure to include 3 work samples long-form journalism which you have either written or edited.

We will be accepting applications until June 31, 2023. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.