Native American Journalists Association

Job Description
The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University—one of the nation’s premier professional mass communications programs—seeks a professor of practice to launch and direct the school’s new LA Content Studio. Hosted in the ASU California Center in Downtown Los Angeles, the Content Studio is a new, immersive strategic content learning experience in which students activate their multimedia content creation skills to build their own content brands, and work with existing brands to expand their content footprints.

The LA Content Studio is one of the Cronkite School’s many professional immersion experiences, which exemplify our “teaching hospital” model of education through hands-on learning and faculty mentorship. In the Content Studio, students cultivate their media and audience development skills as independent content entrepreneurs, producing video, digital, social and immersive media content; measuring content performance; and optimizing content strategy. Students work on parallel paths, partnering with an existing brand to tell its story through innovative, strategic content, and building their own independent content brands through YouTube channels, TikTok accounts, Substack newsletters, influencer partnerships and more. The program’s faculty leader will nurture students’ content creation skills, and develop their strategic approach, content measurement skills and audience development acumen.

The successful candidate is an experienced multimedia content creator of the highest caliber with an entrepreneurial spirit and a firm understanding of how to thrive in the content economy. The candidate must be a creative problem solver who is comfortable in an energetic, dynamic, startup environment while demonstrating a commitment to innovation and collaboration.

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 12-month appointment with an academic rank of “professor of practice.” Salary is commensurate with experience. This is not a tenure-track position.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the L.A. Content Studio, an immersive incubator for video, digital and social content brands, and support undergraduate and graduate students in meeting the Content Studio’s learning outcomes.
• Guide students in goal-setting, content strategy and launch for their own content brands, and ideate compelling content guided by those strategies.
• Supervise student content production from conception to completion, for content produced both in the field and in the ASU California Center’s production studios, editing rooms and control room facilities.
• Develop students’ content measurement and analytics reporting capabilities, and lead optimization and monetization.
• Develop and engage clients for the Content Studio across a variety of industries, and lead client activation, strategy and relationships.
• Foster a learning culture that inspires students with relevant content, tools and techniques that enhance digital storytelling and audience connection.
• Engage in service to students and the Cronkite School, including student mentorship, committee work and guest speaking.
• Serve as a disciplinary thought leader, proactively staying abreast of new content creation techniques and technology updates; curating exemplars of superior professional work; and highlighting superb student work.
• Collaborate with school leadership and faculty to develop curricula.
• Perform student, school and university service work (e.g. serving on committees, guiding independent projects, making networking connections for students, supporting students in career development)
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• Ten or more years of content creation experience, at least three of which are in a content creation, content strategy or related role
• A bachelor’s degree in any subject

Desired Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience creating strategic content and campaigns for a brand, organization or media outlet with measurable success
• Expertise in content strategy, including goal-setting, audience targeting, funnel strategy, audience measurement, engagement and current trends/updates
• Exceptional video, digital and social content creation skills in mobile and studio formats
• Exceptional video editing skills, including robust knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro or equivalent nonlinear software
• Demonstrated leadership and supervisory experience in a content-creating team or role
• Experience cultivating and managing client relationships
• Experience working with students in a university or agency setting and/or mentoring emerging content creators
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in both professional practice and as a contributor to an inclusive working and learning environment
• Master’s degree

About the Cronkite School
The Cronkite School is widely recognized as one of the nation’s premier colleges of journalism and mass communication. Rooted in the time-honored values that characterize its namesake – accuracy, responsibility, integrity – the school fosters excellence and ethics among students as they master the professional skills they need to succeed in the digital media world of today and tomorrow.

Located on ASU’s downtown Phoenix campus in the heart of the nation’s fifth-largest city, with additional centers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., the school has 70 full-time faculty members and more than 100 full-time professional staff and annual resources of more than $40 million. The Cronkite faculty is made up of award-winning professional journalists, strategic communications specialists and world-class media scholars. Cronkite professors include five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists; digital media thought leaders, top TV producers and correspondents, major metropolitan newspaper editors and strategic communications experts.

Cronkite offers bachelor’s degrees in journalism and mass communication, sports journalism, digital audiences, mass communication and media studies, and digital media literacy. The School offers master’s degrees in mass communication, sports journalism, investigative journalism and digital audience strategy as well as a Ph.D. program in journalism and mass communication.

Nearly 2,500 undergraduate, master’s degree and doctoral students are enrolled at Cronkite, preparing for careers in journalism, strategic media and related communications fields. Of the undergraduate residential student population, more than 60% come from out-of-state and more than 37% are students of color. The retention rate consistently exceeds 90%, and Cronkite students regularly lead the country in national journalism competitions.

The school champions a “teaching hospital” model of education, for which it has received international acclaim. Cronkite News is among more than a dozen full-immersion capstone programs at the school, in which students work in intensive, real-world settings under the guidance of top-flight professionals and in collaboration with research faculty.

About the ASU California Center
At ASU’s flagship Los Angeles campus, students can access internships and learning opportunities only available in a global city, and world-class faculty and innovative media projects only available at the Cronkite School. The California Center hosts the L.A. Content Studio, where students build their own content brands and produce content for existing brands, and Cronkite News‘ L.A. Bureau, where digital and broadcast students create award-winning news and sports content. The building is also home to Cronkite’s MS in Digital Strategy degree program—a graduate degree that nurtures digital marketing leaders—and the MA in Narrative and Emerging Media, which develops storytellers specializing in AR, VR and emerging media techniques.

The heart of ASU’s California Center campus is the flagship Herald Examiner Building, located at 11th Street and Broadway. Commissioned by William Randolph Hearst and designed by architect Julia Morgan, the building has stood in downtown L.A. since 1914. For decades, the building housed the Hearst Corporation’s Herald Examiner newspaper; now, it’s home to the L.A. Content Studio, Cronkite News’ L.A. Bureau, as well as video/audio editing bays, a broadcast studio, a 3D studio, classrooms, a two-story event space and more.

About Arizona State University
ASU is one of the largest and most innovative public research universities in the country, undertaking a bold reinvention of higher education as a New American University. With four campuses in the Phoenix metropolitan area, it serves more than 127,000 students on campus and online. For the past seven years, it has been ranked No. 1 for innovation by U.S. News & World Report.

In the past decade, ASU has developed numerous new programs and units that bridge disciplinary boundaries to enable the exploration and discovery of new knowledge, while developing practical solutions to serve Arizona and the world at large. The university has strong and simultaneous commitments to educational access, excellence, and impact, and assumes significant responsibility for the cultural, social and economic vitality of its surrounding communities.

Applications
Submission materials must include:

• A cover letter stating qualifications
• Curriculum vitae or resume
• A link to samples of work created or produced, with a written explanation of the role the applicant played in the creation and execution of each work sample
• Contact information (name, address, email, telephone number) for three professional references
• A diversity statement that addresses their experience and commitment to social justice, diversity, equity and inclusion over the course of their careers and outlines how they would advance DEI goals at the Cronkite School. The statement should be no longer than 500 words.

The applicant’s name should appear in each uploaded file name. Cover letters may be addressed to the Search Committee Chair, Cronkite assistant dean Brett Kurland. Questions about the position should be directed to the search committee chair at: brett.kurland@asu.edu

Application deadline is April 2, 2023. Applications will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis for a reserve pool. Applications in the reserve pool may then be reviewed in the order in which they were received until the position is filled. Applicants must apply online at https://apptrkr.com/3930354.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement. A background check is required for employment. Arizona State University is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

(See https://www.asu.edu/aad/manuals/acd/acd401.html and https://www.asu.edu/titleIX/.)

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources.  ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf  You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456.

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements – Arizona State University is a federal contractor and subject to federal regulations which may require you to produce a record of a COVID-19 vaccination. For questions about medical or religious accommodations, please visit the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s webpage: https://cfo.asu.edu/workplace-accommodations.

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