I’m looking for help with the Online Journalism Blog. Things have exploded since the ‘News Diamond’ and the blog is at the point now where it needs to step up a gear. I’m looking for a volunteer worker to do a bit of research and information management, and possible interviews and articles, so that a) I can focus on the analysis side of things and do more postings of the ’21st century newsroom’ type; and b) we can maybe do some interesting experiments with online journalism that have been on the ‘To Do’ list for far too long. You don’t have to live in the same town, city, country or time zone as me. You just have to be interested in the news industry and the online environment, have an email address – and you’ve got to want to actually do the job.

This is probably a weekly thing — or an hour every other day, say — and it comes with no pay. There is no earthly reason why you might want to do this, except perhaps as a work experience exercise or to put down on your CV or as a way to develop your contacts and knowledge.

I can promise that it’ll be interesting (or at least, it’s all about stuff that I find interesting anyway, so if you’re reading this, chances are that’d be true for you too), but it won’t be rewarding in any traditional sense.

I might buy you a little token gift around Christmas time if it all works out well, but the work will pretty much need to be its own reward. That said, as you might guess, this is part of an overall project to ‘build a team’, and if the past year is any guide, that may help open some doors for you.

I imagine this is going to suit someone young and enthusiastic with decent written communication skills, maybe tech skills, and a pre-existing interest in this blog. If you’re an academic, you might want to pass this on to your journalism students.

If there’s a reason you think you’d be right to do this, drop me an email: paul.bradshaw@bcu.ac.uk

PS: Idea and much of the text stolen shamelessly from my colleague Andrew Dubber. He knows what I’ve done and where I live.