Environment and Indigenous Affairs Reporter

Date Posted	September 05, 2023
Industry	Radio Jobs
Specialty	Other
Job Status	Full-time

Description:

WYSO seeks a curious reporter to join our growing organization and cover climate change and the environment, and help build an Indigenous affairs beat. WYSO Public Radio is the NPR affiliate for a 14-county region in Southwest Ohio, including Dayton and Springfield, with a potential audience of more than two million. We are on a dynamic path of growth and change, having recently transitioned from university to community ownership. As part of our mission-driven journalism, we are engaged and committed to equitable and inclusive service, both to our community and to each other. We seek to recognize and understand the biases within ourselves, in our work, and in the systems we uphold. We welcome a wide range of experiences, identities, and perspectives on our teams and our news coverage. We are always working to diversify our content to serve members of our community that may have not always felt welcomed by public media. On the air since 1958, we're a funky, hybrid format, with independent news and music.

The successful candidate will be a creative problem solver who generates story ideas on and off their beat, and balances shorter daily stories with more in-depth, investigative and solutions-focused enterprise coverage. They should either have a science or science-reporting background, or willingness to learn and understand scientific topics. They also should be comfortable using social media to tell and find stories, committed to including diverse voices in reporting and capable of building a network of community connections to enrich coverage. The successful candidate will work forty hours a week reporting to the News Director.

Responsibilities:

• Cover climate change, water and air quality, the effects of development and other related topics, including highlighting Indigenous perspectives and solutions to environmental problems
• Cover historic Ohio tribe cultural and language revitalization, state American Indian policy, claimant groups, and other related topics
• Produce a mix of readers and spots, as well as more in-depth features
• Record, edit and mix audio
• Create content that’s people-centered, including people who haven’t always been represented in news coverage (especially citizens of historic Ohio tribal nations)
• Write news stories and take digital photos for online audiences
• Use social media to distribute content, and find stories and sources
• Occasional fill-in hosting of news magazines (will provide training if needed)
• Pitch live on the air during fund drives

Required Qualifications:

• At least two years of professional journalism experience preferred
• Bachelor's degree preferred
• Passion for public radio, our public service mission and local journalism
• Communicates effectively, both orally and in writing, with strong interpersonal skills
• Fast, clear and capable writer familiar with AP style
• Displays the highest standards of accuracy, fairness and ethics in reporting
• Familiar with current and emerging digital/online technology, and willing to learn new technologies

Desired Qualifications:

• Previous science reporting or knowledge preferred
• Experience reporting
• Experience in broadcast production preferred
• Experience or interest in experimenting with storytelling techniques, both on air and digital
• Knowledge of our local area and historic Ohio Indigenous nations (Delaware, Miami, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Seneca, Shawnee, Wyandotte and others) is a plus but not required

Salary and Benefits:

• Salary range is $45,00-$60,000, commensurate with experience.
• Benefits include health/dental/vision insurance; paid holidays, paid vacation, and paid sick leave; 401(k) company match; HSA with annual company grant; gym membership/wellness stipend; cell phone and home internet stipend with participation in benefits from the first day of employment. This is an exempt position.

About WYSO:

WYSO enjoys strong support from listeners and local businesses. Over 80,000 listeners tune in every week, and thousands more regularly interact with our website. Contributed revenues have doubled in the past 10 years. We have 22 full-time staff, numerous paid interns, dozens of volunteer producers and hosts – and these numbers will continue to grow.

WYSO is an Equal Opportunity Employer with diversity as one of our core values. We want our staff to reflect the community we serve. As such, people from all backgrounds, communities, races, religions, and expressed genders are encouraged to apply.

WYSO embraces a hybrid work model where employees can work from home throughout the week with approval from their supervisor.

About The Gem City and Miami Valley:

Indigenous people have lived in the Miami Valley for more than 16,000 years. The landscape is dotted with the elaborate effigy and burial mounds they constructed (some of which are expected to be named UNESCO World Heritage Sites this year), and Ohioans benefit from the region’s natural resources they stewarded for thousands of years. Today, because of forced removals by the U.S. government in the 19th century, Ohio has zero federally recognized tribal nations within its borders. Instead, historic Ohio tribes are headquartered across Canada, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and other parts of the United States. In the past 15 years, the state and other organizations have formed relationships with federally recognized historic Ohio tribal nations leading to new collaborative projects – including a $30 million Shawnee interpretive center and a unique higher education collaboration called the Myaamia Center between Miami University and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

Dayton, Ohio ("The Gem City"), where once upon a time two brothers who ran a bicycle shop dreamed up powered flight and influential Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar first penned verses, continues to be a place where good ideas grow into reality. It's a city busy reinventing itself. This twin sense of possibility and reinvention makes it a great place to live, in our opinion. WYSO is a beloved and respected member of this community because we amplify the voices of the people, organizations, and musicians that call Dayton home. Although we're proud to share national and international stories from NPR, the BBC and others, it's the creation of local content that drives everything we do.

How to Apply: Email a cover letter, resume and five story samples (can be links) to Art Boulet at aboulet@wyso.org.