In the fall of 2015, I joined Poynter to run the newly launched International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). While I had high expectations for the new gig, I could not predict that in the following years fact-checking would become a crucial element of the conversation on the future of journalism worldwide.
The IFCN has played a central role in this conversation. In just over 18 months, we have launched a series of initiatives to make fact-checking better. These include:
- A code of principles that encourages fact-checkers to uphold high standards of transparency in their work (Facebook uses this code as a filter for third-party fact-checkers on its platform).
- The first International Fact-Checking Day, which offered a lesson plan that reached tens of thousands of students internationally.
- Fellowships that help fact-checkers collaborate and learn from each other.
Our upcoming Global Fact-Checking Summit (Global Fact 4) in Madrid will bring together 190 people, including representatives from most major fact-checking initiatives around the world.
The IFCN has a dedicated channel on Poynter.org that draws hundreds of thousands of pageviews annually and a joint newsletter with the American Press Institute with over 5,500 subscribers.
Thanks to $1.3 million in grant funding from the Omidyar Network and the Open Society Foundations, the IFCN can now expand its work. New initiatives will include an innovation fund to reward new formats and business models for fact-checking, an impact tracker to help evaluate and monitor the efficacy of this type of work, and a tool to turn the links fact-checkers use into a searchable database of trustworthy primary sources.
More work will require more hands on board.
We are looking to hire a program manager and a reporter as soon as possible. The program manager will help run our new and existing initiatives and support collaborative efforts among fact-checkers internationally. S/he will have direct experience and a demonstrable passion for this field, many ideas about making fact-checking better and the wherewithal to turn them into reality.
The reporter will be an incisive writer with a nose for the best stories on this beat.
For the first position, international experience and fluency in (at least) Spanish is expected; for the second it is desirable. The salaries are in the $58,000 to $63,000 range for the program manager and $45,000 to $50,000 for the reporter.
To find out more about the two positions and apply follow these links: Program Manager | Reporter.
Find out more about the IFCN on Poynter.org and on Twitter.
