Shorenstein Center Student Research Assistants
Current Openings
Research Assistant for the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a research center that strives to increase understanding of how people access, create, and process information, particularly as it relates to news and societal issues, and to describe potential solutions to the problems facing this information ecosystem.
Among the Center’s several initiatives, the Documentary Film in the Public Interest Initiative (DFPI) seeks to inspire a documentary film practice and infrastructure that can contribute to strong societies. The initiative’s activities are designed to cross bridges between thinking and acting, by bringing together practitioners and researchers, journalists and documentary filmmakers, in a shared project to build a stronger, more resilient field that can serve the needs of a democratic public by design.
The Documentary Film in the Public Interest initiative is seeking a Research Assistant to provide administrative and communications support to the team. The Research Assistant will work closely with the Project Coordinator.
This role will be part-time for approximately four months.
Specific Duties:
- Help build and manage DFPI’s contacts database.
- Data entry for online literature review.
- Assist with content population for DFPI’s new website (in development now).
- Aid in the creation and maintenance of DFPI’s newsletter, and assist with content ideas and population.
- Establish and participate in social media outreach for the DFPI and its programs.
Basic Requirements:
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Strong interest in communications, marketing, and social media.
- Experience working with Outlook, Microsoft 365, Airtable, WordPress, and Salesforce preferred.
- Interest in documentary film, news, journalism, technology, public policy, and the ways these intersect is a plus. Prior experience is not required.
Other Skills:
- Ability to be responsive and collegial in professional communications.
- Comfort with learning new technologies and systems.
The Documentary Film in the Public Interest’s staff are currently working semi-remotely, with many staff working at least 40% remotely. This role will not require in-person work and can be completed remotely.
Applications from women, people of color, and people from traditionally marginalized backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
Time commitment: Up to 14 hours per week, starting ASAP, for four months.
Pay: $22/hour.
To apply, please email a resume and cover letter to Sydney Tanigawa at sydney_tanigawa@hks.harvard.edu.
Content Management and Social Media Research Assistant Positions
The Shorenstein Center is looking for students to gain practical experience working in web content creation and social media management. These two positions will work directly with the center’s core Communications and Events team, focused on two particular channels of the center’s communications outputs.
Social Media Research and Production Assistant:
The Shorenstein Center engages directly with its core external audiences of journalists and policy makers primarily through email and social media channels. We are looking for a very digital-savvy, creative Research & Production Assistant to join the team to help monitor our current social media channels, create native content (posts, graphics, and short video clips), and maintain a regular cadence of scheduled posts about our work and upcoming events, as well as helping the Communications team with launch campaigns for new publications and other research products. This person may also help with media monitoring and tracking interviews and other media hits for Shorenstein Center affiliated faculty, fellows, and staff.
Successful applicants for both roles will have an interest in media, technology, and/or public policy relating to the information ecosystem, be highly organized, reliable, and able to work independently between regular check-ins with the manager and team, and have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Students with experience in communications, digital media, and/or journalism are encouraged to apply, but we also encourage applications from people without this direct experience, but an excitement to learn from and be part of a collegial communications team.
RAs may work up to 20 hours per week, but we expect the average workload to be approximately 10-12 hours/week. RAs may start at any time during the semester, but are expected to stay in the position for at least 3-4 months (one semester) or more.
Pay: $22/hour
To apply for either role, please fill out this form. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.