Short-Term Consultant: Researcher, Strengthening Civil Society System (SAWT)

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Internews seeks a Researcher to conduct an Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) and Digital Media Business Environment Assessment (DMBEA) – Mapping of Jordan’s digital media landscape with a focus on urban youth, women, and persons with disabilities in rural areas with limited access to information with the objective of enhancing their engagement and participation in Jordan.

LOGISTICS

Internews has field offices in Jordan. Ultimately, this role will be based in Amman, Jordan. This is a short-term consultancy, with an expected term of July 2022 through September 2022. The research is expected to require no more than 40 working days.

Wherever possible, we work to try to find solutions for international hiring that work for both the company and the candidate. This means that some of the particulars around the offer for a role will be dependent on several factors, and that the benefits and salary structure that apply to a position will ultimately be based upon the candidate’s location and where the role is hired.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates are encouraged to apply soon.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates should apply soon.

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE

Jordan is currently facing multiple challenges to its stability, from an economic downturn that has been exacerbated by COVID-19, to severe limitations on water resources, to a growing sense of cynicism amongst voters. Citizen trust in their government depends in part on whether citizens feel their voices are heard. An effective civil society, with organizations that are relevant to their constituents, should build trust between the governed and those who govern.

Civil society and media are vital to advancing effective and inclusive civic engagement and participation in Jordan. Yet, they face profound challenges, including shrinking civic space, mistrust among their constituents, and complex new threats to their long-term sustainability. While civil society and media organizations in Jordan are numerous and vibrant, their capacity to address these threats and engage constructively with the Government of Jordan (GOJ) is weak.

The Jordanian media landscape is undergoing a paradigm shift driven by the fast-developing digital infrastructure, increased number of internet users, and changing consumer behavior. Jordanian society’s reliance on mainstream media, in particular print media platforms, declined recently in favor of digital and social media. Audiences increasingly look for trustworthy news and innovative local content on digital platforms and social media networks. Unfortunately, online news websites, though widely read and viewed by Jordanians, including youth, continue to suffer from a lack of credibility. Audiences show low trust in media content across all formats, including television and social media depending on the platform. Newspapers have lost youth readership while TV still leads in audience share, with Roya TV becoming the choice for the youth audience. The failure of traditional media to embark on digital transformation drove them to decline in readership.

The USAID-funded Strengthening Civil Society System (SAWT) projectaims to position Jordanian civil society to effectively represent and advocate on behalf of citizen-driven interests while leveraging the use of digital media to enhance civic knowledge and discourse. A more active and effective civil society and better-informed public will assist the Government of Jordan (GOJ) in producing policies that respond to citizens’ needs, while also promoting increased trust between government institutions and those whom they govern.

SAWT and its partners aim to ensure sustained civic engagement in Jordan through civil society and digital media innovations through good, trusted knowledge-building resources in which citizens and civil society build knowledge through accessing and engaging critically with accurate and fact-based information, and Participation & Advocacy Citizens and civil society organizations (CSOs) in Jordan that effectively participate in civic spaces and advocate for policies through knowledge-based collective action.

SAWT aims to work with its partners to better inform and engage Jordanian citizens and civil society organizations with Jordan’s media, by creating healthy, dynamic, and transparent information environments which would empower citizens to make better-informed decisions, bridge divides, participate more fully in their communities, and hold power to account.

AUDIENCE & USE OF FINDINGS

SAWT will conduct an Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) with a specific focus on urban youth, women, and persons with disabilities in rural areas with limited access to information; the research will cover Jordan as a whole.

The Digital Media Business Environment Assessment (DMBEA) will focus on media platforms and information providers looking to digitally transform (TVs, radios, newspapers, etc.) or the digital media platforms (online TVs, online radios, digital news websites, and social media platforms influencers, etc.) to ensure that any recommendations made to media platforms are relevant to the market context.

The IEA and DMBEA will be a formative research pieces that SAWT and its partners use:

1. To inform future media development strategy in the country,
2. To inform the design and implementation of various project activities and approaches.

Project activities will include but are not limited to the following:

• Listening Posts: They allow community members to share their thoughts, concerns, needs, and wants in their own words. The information collected through the Listening Posts and the IEA will be used to inform future media outputs and establish feedback loops between media practitioners, their audiences, and information needs.
• Digital Media Knowledge & Networking Labs: Findings would help in identifying ways to build partners’ capacity in digitalization, audience analytics, and innovative revenue generation.
• Innovative Media Literacy (ML) Campaigns: Media literacy remains critical to people making good decisions about what and who to trust. Taking into consideration the results of the IEA, SAWT will design media literacy campaigns and activities to address trust vulnerabilities, particularly in our target groups in rural populations.
• Capacity building of media platforms/ information producers: Based on the results of the IEA and DMBEA, SAWT will design a series of capacity-building initiatives for Jordanian media to increase the local, regional, and national media capacity in the production of public interest content to reach more citizens on issues that matter to them and to provide oversight and an informed critique of government.
• Anti-Mis/Dis-information and fact-checkers support: Fact-checking can greatly reduce the proliferation and impact of mis- and disinformation. Warning labels on social media content contested by fact-checkers, for example, have shown to reduce proliferation. Training and mentoring support can improve the fact-checking ability of key information providers and NGOs working in this area in Jordan.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The overall research objective of the IEA is to understand the digital information dynamics; flow, gaps, needs, and evaluation of trust levels of different information sources. The research is to focus on Jordanian women, youth, and PwD in rural locations.

The overall research objective of the DMBEA is to identify key challenges faced by media platforms in general, and particularly by local media platforms, focusing on digital media and the repercussions for the communities they serve. The report will cover the current status of digital media in Jordan and the organizational, editorial, financial, and legal challenges they face.

Specific research objectives:

1. Mapping the Jordanian media landscape, its legal and regulatory frameworks, operational model, digital capacity, mobile, and data penetration and segmenting different information providers and digital media platforms as per their ownership, funding, political inclination, and target audience.
2. Assessing media outlet capacity needs, Informing the design of the capacity building needs of local digital media platforms in Jordan. With many trainings continuously being offered to media platforms’ staff, media practitioners, and information providers, SAWT wants to identify any unmet needs or aspects that could be improved to make sure the media sector would benefit. In addition to identifying ways to ensure the media sector’s content is relevant and beneficial to their target audiences.
3. Analyzing our target group’s digital media and information consumption habits and needs in rural locations. With a focus on:

• Identifying barriers to access to information among target groups identified by SAWT, for example, mobile and/or internet penetration.
• Pinpointing the differences in needs and habits between the different target groups mentioned above, in different areas in Jordan.

1. Identifying potential partners that focus on serving the information needs of our target groups. Identifying groups representing and working with youth, women, and people with disabilities in rural locations, digital media platforms, local journalists, and information providers.

MAIN RESEARCH AREAS

• Which information sources are mostly followed by target groups and why?
• Which information sources are most trusted by target groups and why? What does trust mean to the target groups?
• Which communities are the most underserved and how to best fill their information gaps?
• Are these information gaps already being addressed by the media? If yes, why are they not adequate and/or effective? If not, what could be done to improve adequacy and effectiveness?
• What are the barriers to access to information, for example, mobile and/or internet penetration, literacy rates, underfunding, etc.?
• What is the media digital content and format/type with which our target groups are most engaged with?
• How effective (or not) is digital media in engaging and prompting contributions from target audiences? What are the determinants of effectiveness and why?
• What are the most effective measures to combat mis/disinformation, build awareness, have an impact on regulations, tools, and media literacy, when it comes to specific topics?
• How has COVID-19 affected media and information consumption?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

SAWT Information Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) are designed to identify how information flows through communities. Whether it be by word of mouth, through trusted community leaders, local media, social media, and/or other “info-mediaries”, the point of doing such assessments is to identify the most effective formats and channels to use when designing two-way communication strategies and feedback loops to meet the identified information needs.

Information Ecosystem Assessments recognize that media platforms are just one source of information in communities, and so they seek to understand local information ecosystems more broadly from the point of view of the information consumer. An IEA assesses all the factors that govern information needs, access, sourcing, movement, uptake, and impact in an ecosystem in much greater depth. By focusing not only on the capacity of supply-side media platforms, but also on the community demand side of the information ecosystem, IEAs can examine the dynamic human-centered aspects of information flows, paying attention to informal, cultural, and social media factors that can disrupt/corrupt community information flows with rumors, misinformation, and propaganda.

The Digital Media Business Environment Assessment identifies the key challenges affecting digital media platforms to produce quality and accessible content that meets community expectations and common interests. In addition, the study should identify and look at the current challenges of the legal framework, funding and revenue streams, digital readiness, audience segmentation, and management.

Both assessments will act as formative research and will be used to inform the design and implementation of SAWT activities.

The research methodology should adopt an iterative, action-oriented, do no harm approach. Data collection should be ethical and allows the equal participation of male and female youth, adults, and persons with disabilities, especially those in remote areas.

The methodology should entail quantitative and qualitative research methods, and triangulation of data including, but not limited to; the below suggestions. It is also important to note that creative, less traditional research methods are welcomed.

• Literature Desk Research. Applicable for IEA and DMBEA. Several studies and landscapes have been conducted in-country and it is important not to duplicate efforts.
• Survey. Applicable for IEA The consultant is responsible for conducting the Information Ecosystem Assessment Survey which will be prepared by SAWT. The sample size for the survey should be representative and include a diverse representation of regions, age groups, gender, education and employment backgrounds, income groups, and persons with disabilities. Data collection methods for the survey will be a combination of digital, phone, and face-to-face (if and when possible).
• In-depth Stakeholders Interviews. Applicable for DMBEA. The consultant is responsible for conducting around 8 to 10 in-depth interviews with stakeholders representing media platforms, target groups, and media/information governing bodies.
• Focus Group Discussions. Applicable for IEA. The consultant is responsible for conducting at least 10 focus groups with individuals or organizations representing the targeted information consumers and producers.

TIMELINE & DELIVERABLES

Deliverable 1 : Proposed plan for conducting research activities including selection preference for interviewees, focus group participants, and survey sample. (July 21, 2022)

Data collection and analysis (July 21 – August 10, 2022)

Deliverable 2: Mid-point findings. Ten slide PowerPoint presentation highlighting main findings to date. (August 1, 2022)

Deliverable 3: Raw data. Delivering all raw data from surveys, interviews, and focus groups, including video and audio files of all meetings, conducted online + Table of content, and structure for the final report. One to two-page outline word document. (August 13, 2022)

Deliverable 4: First draft of the final report. 40 to a 60-page word document, including text, pictures, graphs, illustrations, annexes, and cover page. (August 21, 2022)

Deliverable 5: Final report. 40 to 60-page word and pdf document including text, pictures, graphs, illustrations, annexes, and cover page. Fully designed. (August 31, 2022)

Deliverable 6: Final presentation. 15 to 20 slide presentation with the main findings and recommendations from the research. SAWT Jordan team will support the consultant in creating the presentation. Consultant and SAWT Media Team Lead will jointly present to the stakeholders. (September 9, 2022)

* All deliverables to be submitted in English and with SAWT/USAID branding guidelines.

ETHICS & RISK

Applicants should express the necessary practices they would adopt Do No Harm principles to any in this research process. Respect for respondents, their personal privacy, and autonomy to choose not to respond to any of the research questions is very important to SAWT, in addition to consideration of local and cultural sensitivities.

All the documents produced are highly sensitive and confidential. It is strictly prohibited to share any documents or information without written authorization from SAWT.

RESEARCH MANGEMENT

SAWT Media Team Lead and the Deputy Chief of Party, with the support of SAWT’s HQ team, will be overseeing this research project.

DOCUMENTATION OF RESEARCH

Documentation of the whole research process is paramount to the credibility and trustworthiness of this research, for example, processes around documenting consent whether as forms or oral consent. In addition, the consultant will be expected to clearly communicate about the research and its purposes before primary data collection. Proper documentation and storage of surveys, interview and/or focus group recordings or transcripts that includes documented consent, whether forms or oral consent, is required. SAWT has no tolerance for plagiarism and should be easily able to backtrack any quotes or quantitative findings in the final research deliverable.

QUALIFICATIONS WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Required

• Degree in politics, international politics, media, journalism, international development, evaluation, or related field.
• At least 5 years of quantitative and qualitative research experience.
• Extensive experience and knowledge of different research methodologies, particularly qualitative research.
• Interest in participatory research techniques and desire to use alternative, less traditional research methodologies.
• Strong contextual knowledge and access to remote or less centralized locations within Jordan.
• Excellent English writing skills or incorporation of translation costs as part of the total budget.
• Fluent in English/Arabic.

Preferred

Note: Candidates who do not have these preferred qualifications, but are interested and willing to learn, are encouraged to apply.

• Experience conducting evaluations for media development and a strong knowledge of the Jordan media landscape.
• Masters’ degree or Ph.D. in a relevant field.

TO APPLY

If you believe you qualify for the above research consultancy, please submit an Expression of Interest which includes:

• CV
• A technical proposal that demonstrates the relevant skills and experience of the research lead and team, presents a clear understanding of the formative research, and outlines the proposed research design.
• A financial proposal with a detailed cost breakdown. The proposal should be all inclusive (taxes, travel costs, translation costs, etc.)
• Names/contact information of two references, preferably from organizations with whom the consultant has conducted similar types of research.
• One recent research report researched and written by the consultant.

How to apply

Please submit application materials at https://phf.tbe.taleo.net/phf04/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=INTERNEWS&cws=38&rid=1808