Hello -
Civic Health Project <https://www.civichealthproject.org/> is hiring a
Summer Fellow to help steer their efforts to measure "toxic political
content" across media platforms. It's an exciting opportunity for a social,
data or computer scientist who enjoys methodological challenges and is
interested in working at the nexus of technology, platform accountability
and social science. Listing below and at this link
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WmLSf4cmwWLn1R9PrEyDNGh_KRTXpx8Mw-JMLa_ilEI/edit?usp=sharing>
.
Happy to answer questions - and thanks for sharing with any who may be a
fit.
Julia Kamin
--
CHP Summer 2022 Fellowship
“Exploring Strategies to Identify Toxic Political Content”
*Role Description*
Description of Civic Health Project
Civic Health Project <https://www.civichealthproject.org/> is dedicated to
reducing toxic polarization and creating healthier public discourse in the
American citizenry, politics, and media. We partner with leading academics
and practitioners to design and execute projects that deliver measurable
improvements in rationality, empathy, and decision outcomes for the sake of
a healthier, more functional democracy.
Position
CHP is offering a three-month paid fellowship to help us accelerate our
efforts to explore, shape, and implement strategies to identify and measure
toxic political content (TPC)
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sz_4To2SYRJRguCOHfQFgI70Thy6p_lE1OZwQVs7GWc/edit?usp=sharing>
across news and social media. Identifying toxic political content at scale
is a complex problem that involves challenges related to data access,
measurement development, predictive models and large scale data processing.
The Fellow will play a central role in specifying those challenges and
identifying a strategic path forward for CHP.
The fellowship will be funded for a minimum of three months (with possible
option to extend), can be performed on a PT or FT basis depending on
candidate fit and availability, and can be performed remotely from any U.S.
location. Official start date is June 1, but candidates with earlier
availability can begin ASAP.
Working under the auspices of our Director, Research and Evaluation, the
Fellow will assist our team by identifying answers to the following
questions:
-
Measurement definition and scoping: What attitudinal and behavioral
outcomes are the best indicators of toxic political content? What tools
and methodologies can be used to predict TPC at scale?
-
Market landscape analysis: What teams, approaches, and methodologies are
already being deployed to address our content scope (i.e. “TPC”) as well as
adjacent, scoped categories (e.g. "misinformation" or "hate speech")? What
stakeholders may be potential adopters of a TPC measurement tool and toward
what uses?
-
Data access: What are avenues for accessing data across media platforms
- including APIs, collaboration with media companies, and independent
audits?
-
Implementation path(s): What viable paths forward exist for our team,
based on the findings? I.e. What approaches should we test, pilot, build,
evaluate, and / or fund? With whom should we partner? What are the gating
factors on deploying a viable approach, and how can these be overcome?
The applicant for this role should possess a blend of political or social
science expertise and technology acumen, e.g.. familiarity with or use of
machine learning/AI, large scale data collection and analytics or audit
studies. Passion to improve US civic health and civil discourse is also
very important.
Further description of the role and responsibilities
This role includes but is not limited to the following activities:
-
Work with the Director of Research and Evaluation and stakeholders
(civic organizations, researchers, technologists) to refine TPC's
definition and measures.
-
Conduct a broader landscape analysis of technologists, and data &
social scientists, who may be researching and / or implementing viable
approaches to reducing toxic political content, including efforts to
address adjacent adverse content types.
-
Identify and conduct meetings with technologists and data & social
scientists, with the dual purpose of (1) identifying challenges and best
potential methodologies for identifying and measuring toxic political
content, and (2) developing relationships with aligned groups and
practitioners whom CHP may want to engage with to develop viable approaches.
-
Report on findings, identifying and proposing the most viable and
impactful strategic paths toward measuring toxic political content at scale.
Qualifications sought
-
Masters or PhD in Social Science, Data Science, Computer Science or
related field, or equivalent experience
-
Experience with machine learning/AI, large scale data collection and
analytics, platform algorithms or audit studies. Experience may be
technical or other.
-
Familiarity with issues and policies related to tech platform
transparency and governance
-
Creativity and desire to solve complicated technology problems
-
Ability to build relationships with diverse stake-holders
-
Strong desire to make an impact on American civic health and civil
discourse
Location
Flexible location; current team is based in Palo Alto, CA and NYC but
candidate can be remote
Compensation
$15k-$20k, based on availability and experience
Hours
Half to Full-time (Full-time preferred, but this is negotiable)
Hiring Manager
Julia Kamin
Director, Research and Evaluation
[log in to unmask]
(646) 732-9616
To apply
Send cover letter and resume to [log in to unmask] In your cover
letter please discuss: why you are interested in the project; what you see
as the greatest challenges to building a cross-media measurement tool
focused on toxic political content; and what skills and experience you
bring to the project in view of those challenges.
Director of Research & Evaluation, Civic Health Project
civichealthproject.org
PhD, University of Michigan
[log in to unmask]
646 732 9616
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