Investigations are the heart of The Markup’s work. Our investigative reporters work closely with our data journalists, reporting and writing principally investigative stories and series but also follow-up stories and occasional explanatory Ask the Markup articles.
The Markup is one of the nation’s premier nonprofit journalism organizations, focusing on investigative and accountability reporting and tools that reveal technology’s effects on society. During our first year of publishing, our work has exposed dangerous practices, racial biases and other discriminatory processes—and prompted change. Our investigations have been cited by members of Congress repeatedly and led the country’s largest tech companies to fix gaping errors.
Our approach to investigative journalism is guided by the scientific method. We develop hypotheses and assemble data—through crowdsourcing, FOIA requests, hand-crafted and automated data collection—and conduct reporting to test those theories and how real people are affected by the problems we uncover.
Investigative reporters at The Markup are curious, inventive, rigorous, and collaborative journalists who can devise, organize, and lead investigations, are comfortable with data and spreadsheets, excellent researchers, inquisitive interviewers, and careful reporters.
The Investigative Reporter develops the necessary domain expertise in the topic area, reports out and finds compelling anecdotes to illustrate the findings, and conceives of and shapes the narrative of the article, with the help of her/his editor.
Grit, wit, kindness, and a strong work ethic are vital at The Markup. We strongly encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds to apply.
This position reports to the Managing Editor for Investigations.
Applications are due by June 5.
Job Duties:
- Adhere to journalistic and The Markup standards of ethics and fairness.
- Curiosity. Investigative reporters generate their own story ideas, collaborate with investigative data journalists to develop leads, and take assignments as needed.
- Research. Investigative reporters do their own research. It is part of the reporting process. They should avail themselves of tools provided, such as LexisNexis and PACER.
- Source development. Investigative reporters cultivate sources and take security measures to protect the confidentiality of those sources. They are skilled in the art of interviewing.
- Public Records. Investigative reporters file public records requests and work with their editor and our legal team to craft and defend our requests.
- Collaboration. Investigative reporters typically work with data journalists on projects. At times they may collaborate with journalists at other news organizations and, in general, should be generous with their colleagues.
- Reporting. Investigative reporters pursue large investigative projects, follow-up stories, and occasional explanatory or smaller stories.
- Writing. Investigative reporters capture the heart of the story in sharp and precise language. They write compelling narratives when the story calls for it but are equally comfortable with short, pithy, or service-style stories.
- Fact-checking. Investigative reporters meticulously fact-check their own work.
- Feedback. Investigative reporters seek and accept feedback on their writing and reporting process and take direction from editors gracefully.
- Social. Investigative reporters collaborate with the social team on social copy and outreach for stories, as necessary. They review all social copy with an eye toward accuracy, as part of their fact-check process.
- Graphics. Investigative reporters work with the graphics department to gather visual assets for stories and social media. This includes helping to find and coordinate with subjects for photographs, when needed.
- Follow-ups. Stories don’t always end when they publish; Investigative Reporters should be on the hunt for follow-ups and other stories that can push an investigation further.
- Work well on a team, sharing responsibilities and credit.
- Ability to execute on tasks and instructions from editors, including submitting investigative checklists and experimental design proposals for approval.
- Participate in team and staff meetings, as required.
- Meet deadlines.
Qualifications:
- Minimum of seven years of journalism experience and a track record of generating enterprising news articles.
- Comfortable generating story ideas and following leads.
- Skilled at navigating research databases.
- Adept at interviewing and putting sources at ease.
- Experience filing public records requests, preferably at local, state, and federal level.
- Familiar with Excel (maybe you are not an expert, but are willing to learn).
- Comfortable with document-based reporting, cold-calling sources, and on-the-street interviews.
- Experience researching prior studies and stories.
- Ability to dig deep and tenacity in finding hard-to-get information, sources and records.
- Experience working on investigations even if your previous employer didn’t give you much time to do them.
- Ability to write various kinds of articles, from short explainers to a long, multipart series.
- Have a fact-checking process and stick with it.
- Speaking a language in addition to English is a plus, but not required.
- Experience covering technology is a plus but not required.
To apply, go here.
