CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Journalists & Editorial Assistants Dublin Belfast 2016 - 81 st International Session of the European Youth Parliament
The 81st International Session of the EYP will be held in Dublin, Ireland and Belfast, the United Kingdom between 3rd and 13th March 2016, under the session theme 'Crossing Borders, Transcending Conflict’. The event will be presided by Ms İrem Tümer (TR). The Media team will be led by Ms Saga Eriksson (FI). You can read about her vision below. For more information on the session, please, visit the event’s official website and Facebook page.
We are now looking for 15 journalists and 2 editorial assistants. All members of the Media team are required to arrive in Belfast by Wednesday, 2 nd March in order to attend the training. Departures are on Sunday, 13th March from Dublin.
Vision of the Media team The average attention span is 8 seconds. In EYP where everything is condensed, time is finite and there is a sense of urgency, this is reduced even further. For a media team to be relevant and its output to be digestible and easy to engage with, we are talking about a matter of seconds to capture the attention of participants. Therefore, my vision stems from producing output that is easy to consume and that supplements the session experience instead of distracting from it. Engaging with a media team product should not result in participants having to make a trade-off between real human interactions with others and interacting with our product. Consuming media differs from everything else we do in EYP in that it is often not a collective experience, but instead an individual one. Written content is what we read when we are on the train by ourselves, photos are what we flick through in an empty moment standing at the bus stop, videos are what we watch alone at home when procrastinating from work. This does not mean that media is never shared, it can spark a discussion and inspire to share, but this often occurs after individual consumption. Therefore, my vision for the Media team is not one that has to engage 100 % of people 100 % of the time. It is something that you can choose to engage with in your own time. The two main products the Media team of Dublin Belfast 2016 will aim to produce are 'in brief' newsletters and audio-visual content. The 'in briefs' are single page documents each committee will receive in the morning of each committee work day on their own topic and their focus group topic, giving them an overview of how policy is developing and what stakeholders are saying about the topic. The second key element will be the audio-visual output which will focus more on the unique features of the session, the Eurovoice event and the session theme 'Crossing Borders, Transcending Conflict'. The videos will aim to tell the story of the session; what happened, why it happened and what it means. What am I looking for in a team? I am looking for 15 people who are willing to research their topic and stay up to date on what is happening in their relevant policy area to be able to, in cooperation with the chairperson, supplement the knowledge of delegates and give relevant pointers on the context of their topic in terms of on the ground policy making and its evolving context. In addition to this the journalists will be expected to document the journey of their committee and be a part of their experience. 2
I am also keen to have journalists who play a big role in video filming and production under the guidance of the editorial assistants. Therefore, I would be looking for at least 4 individuals with some video experience. Photographic output will also be a key element of the session, therefore, I would also be looking to have up to 4 individuals with Photoshop skills on the team. In editorial assistants I am looking for someone who can take the lead on producing videos starting from concept development and storyboarding in cooperation with myself, to overseeing filming, production and editing of video content at the session. If you have any further questions about the vision, please, do not hesitate to contact me at: saga.eriksson@live.fi.
Selection criteria According to EYP policies, the Selection panel is looking for individuals with the following qualities: i.
Excellent English language skills (French desirable);
ii.
A sense of responsibility, expressed motivation and commitment to further the media team’s objectives (EYP experience desirable);
iii.
Ability to work as a member of a team and with individuals from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds;
iv.
Photography and video skills (technical media production skills desirable);
v.
Good writing and researching skills (interest in European issues desirable);
vi.
Creativity in all aspects of the pressroom.
The overall team will also present a cohesive and suitable balance of nationality, gender and levels of experience. Applicants should be aware that failure to be selected is no reflection on their talent or ability to be part of an International Session media team. The Selection panel will consider first the individuals who have applied for the position and thereby thoroughly go over all the applications, following the guidelines given by the Governing Body. The Selection panel will consist of the Session Editress Ms Saga Eriksson, past session Editors Mr Theodor Hall and Mr Jonathan Piepers, a member of the Governing Body Ms Anya Suprunenko and a designated representative of the BiNOC (yet to be confirmed). According to the new Policy on the Selection of International Session Officials a representative of the BiNOC will sit on the Selection panel for the Media team with powers and responsibilities equal to other panel members. Following a decision by the Board of National Committees and the Governing Body, Dublin Belfast 2016 is the first International Session of the EYP at which a recommendation is not a pre-requisite for selection to any role. However, to be eligible for selection, all applicants need to have at least one official EYP evaluation, given at an International Session or at a national or regional event by a former International Session Chairperson. In the reformed system, all team leaders and chairpersons at all events will have the right to submit evaluations. However, the reformed system in its entirety will only take effect on 1st January 2016. In practice, all evaluations to be used at the officials’ selection for Dublin Belfast 2016 have been submitted under the current system and
rules. All other selection criteria remain valid. Further information on the reform of the evaluation and feedback system is available at http://alumni.eypej.org/archives/60160. In case you are unsure if you are eligible to apply or if you want to check your individual evaluation forms with your previous Chairperson(s)/ President(s) or by contacting the Human Resources Officer of the EYP at hr@eyp. org.
How to apply? If you are available and interested in attending, you should follow these steps to apply: 1. Log on to the EYP Alumni platform (if you do not have access or encounter any other problems, please get in touch with support@eyp.org); 2. Update your profile on the platform. Please, make sure your full name, country, nationality and contact information are available and updated. 3. Sign up for the 81st International Session in Dublin Belfast 2016 as either a journalist or an editorial assistant and fill in the 'additional fields' in the application form (questions are listed below). If you wish to apply for both positions, please, send one of your applications in PDF format to hr@eyp.org. Please, include all your information (full name and contact details) on the offline application, as well as your answers to the questions too. 4. Once you have submitted your application on the platform, please, send your updated session history using the template provided on the event’s page on the Alumni platform to hr@eyp.org. Please, note that this is a prerequisite for your application to be considered. 5. The deadline for submitting your application on the platform and sending in your updates session history to the hr@eyp.org is Monday, 30th November at 12:00 (noon) CET. All officials are also asked to make sure they are aware of the relevant policies of the EYP as listed in the official EYP Info Section on the platform at http://alumni.eypej.org/governance.
Application questions Please note that the panel will be looking for quality rather than quantity, which is why we kindly ask all applicants to ensure that none of their answers to any of the questions below exceeds the word limit. For Journalists: 1. Given the vision to produce ‘in brief’ updates of the latest developments within a topic for committees, please write an example 1 page collection of recent developments on a previous International Session topic of your choice. Things to include could be short summaries of recent articles or reports, statistics, Tweets by MEPs or Commissioners, etc. Please, also remember to reference the source from which the information you are summarising comes from. 2. Briefly explain what you see as the purpose of EYP media and what its core value is? 4
For Editorial Assistants: 1. Integrating a session theme into media team output is often an after-thought rather than a guiding principle. However we would like this not to be the case for Dublin Belfast 2016, therefore please provide an idea of how the session theme could be integrated as a core element of video output. 2. Please provide an outline of what the coverage of the Eurovoice event could look like.
The deadline for submitting your application and sending in the updated session history is Monday, 30th November at 12.00 (noon) CET. The selection will only begin once the application deadline is over. All the applicants will be informed individually about the outcome of the selection process. Should you have any questions regarding the application procedure, please contact the Human Resources Officer at hr@eyp.org.