Media Liaison / Writer

Summary and Background Information

GovHack is the largest Hackathon in the Southern Hemisphere and run almost entirely by volunteers across Australia and New Zealand. It has been operating for ten years and brings together people from all walks of life, to deliver solutions to community issues by hacking, mashing and remodelling Government Open Data.

GovHack uses multiple channels used to communicate with its audience, from general members of the public to sponsors, volunteers, government agencies and other open data bodies. There are many interesting and valuable stories that come out of GovHack, from unique participants to sponsors, and we want to capture them all.


Essential Duties and Responsibilities for team roles available

You will engage with media outlets and create relationships with relevant tech journalists to promote GovHack. You will delve into GovHack and find interesting stories for our website blog content. You will also be responsible for the following

  • Contacting National and State media outlets
  • Writing and release of press releases
  • Assisting State teams with creating media releases
  • Conducting interviews for blogs, ranging from sponsors to participants. See here for past examples: https://govhack.org/media-hub/
  • Monitoring the media and web for mentions of GovHack and linking to those mentions from our site

Requirements

  • Interest in Journalism / Media and with relevant experience
  • Strong writing skills
  • Knowledge of GovHack or a similar large scale Hackathon
  • Proven personal communication skills
  • Proven time management skills
  • Regular attendance to weekly video conferences (Thursday 5.30PM AEST).

Support and Supervision

This role will sit within the Marketing Team, which is a part of the International Operations Team.


Time Commitment

The time commitment may different depending on the phase of the project but as you will be working on the same initiatives year round, it is expected a minimum of 3 hours a week is required. It is expected that before (May – August) and after (August- Nov) the competition weekend there will be more blogs and stories written.


Volunteer Benefits

  • Opportunity to network and experience working with motivated and inspiring people
  • Experience of doing interviews with participants and sponsors which may include executives in major companies
  • You will have content you’ve created published which will enhance your profile as a journalist
  • Acknowledgements that you helped deliver the largest hackathon in the Southern Hemisphere