The Carter Center is guided by a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering; it seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health. Through this call for applications, we are seeking qualified candidates for inclusion on a roster of consultants to serve as Social Media Analysts in upcoming international election observation missions as well as efforts to support domestic civil society initiatives. By responding to this call for applications, you will be added to a roster of potential analysts that may be contacted regarding upcoming missions and initiatives in countries to be determined.
The Analyst will liaise regularly with the Center’s headquarters in Atlanta and report directly to an Associate Director in the Center’s Democracy Program (in Atlanta).
Responsibilities:
Depending on the scope of the mission or initiatives, the Social Media Analyst will be responsible for the following:
Strategy Development
- Conduct analysis of the social media landscape and relevant regulations in which specific elections are being held. This could include: concerns regarding how social media is used, extent of internet penetration, main social media platforms in use, and the regulatory environment regarding freedom of speech, disinformation, hate speech, data protection and privacy, political finance, and online advertising.
- Contribute to overall social media analysis strategy, research tools, and reporting mechanisms and liaise with a small team to implement the project.
- Strategize meetings to be held between country experts and relevant stakeholders to analyze situations in specific countries regarding digital communications. Participate in meetings on behalf of the Center. This may include meeting with institutions, agencies, internet activists, academics, social media and social network companies, domestic election observer organizations, and civil society groups active in the protection of digital rights and social network monitoring.
Training and Capacity Building
- Conduct digital literacy trainings for political and civic actors on concerns related to social media. This could include: disinformation, hate speech, online harassment, computational propaganda, and dark political advertising.
- Provide capacity building trainings for non-governmental organizations on how to identify election-related social media activity that warrants particular scrutiny and conduct monitoring and analysis of activity on social media platforms.
- Provide technical assistance to non-governmental organizations to use social media monitoring tools and technologies.
Monitoring and Analysis
- Monitor elections – presidential, parliamentary and local – through qualitative analysis of various social media platforms. This includes use of social media to campaign, extent of campaign advertising, disinformation efforts, illegal campaigning, and security issues;
- Track main political and social discourses in the main social media platforms, prior to, during, and after specific election events.
- Produce accurate and timely written reports as well as contribute to drafting of reports with findings and assessments of the use of social media during the elections and its impact, highlighting key challenges and incidents, and assessing the findings against international standards and best practices.
- Draft an internal lessons-learned document regarding the monitoring of social media in complex electoral environments, including recommendations and guidelines for future election observation missions.
Data Management
- Create social media monitoring databases.
- Develop a database to track main political and social discourses in the main social media platforms, prior to, during, and after specific election events.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Degree in political science, journalism, international relations or related field.
- Experience conducting social media monitoring activities, notably with a focus on disinformation, hate speech or online harassment.
- Expertise in one or more of the following subject areas – disinformation, hate speech, online harassment, computational propaganda, and dark political advertising.
- Understanding of Democratic Election Standards and International Human Rights Law, particularly related to Freedom of Expression, Opinion and Participation.
- Good written and verbal communications skills.
- Understanding of R and /or Python and familiarity with APIs.
- Knowledge of data science and / or statistical principles a plus.
- Experience with CrowdTangle a plus.
- Fast learner, self-starter, adaptable.
- High level of comfort learning on the go.
Please send a CV/Resume, together with a cover letter explaining how your profile and experience match the job requirements, via email to applied.research@cartercenter.org with the subject line, Social Media Analyst.