Consultant for Digital Media Listening/Mapping

 

Search for Common Ground Indonesia

 

Terms of Reference

Consultant for Digital Media Listening/Mapping

 

Search for Common Ground (Search) Indonesia invites applications from individual consultants/firms/research organizations to conduct digital media listening and present their findings in the discussions/ workshops with media editors and selected content creators on the use of media to promote freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Indonesia.

The Organization

Search for Common Ground (Search) is an international peacebuilding organization that promotes the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Search’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. Search seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. Search implements projects from 56 offices in 35 countries, including in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.

Search has been working in Indonesia since 2002 and is implementing programs in conflict transformation, peacebuilding, prison reform, conflict-sensitive journalism, electoral participation, and initiatives with youth, media, government agencies, informal religious leaders, and women’s groups across the country.

Background

The Indonesian public is particularly prone to provocation when it comes to issues of religion and ethnicity both offline and online. Online, the lack of digital literacy or ability to critically evaluate content on social media results in difficulties identifying information from false and inflammatory content.[1] The Digital Civility Index (DCI) Report published by Microsoft in 2020 ranked Indonesia 29th of the 32 countries analyzed, meaning that Indonesian internet users are among the most exposed to risks in online interactions, such as trolling, mean behavior or harassment.

The use of social media to spread negative narratives and hate speech directed towards religious minority groups was also prominent concerning the Covid-19 pandemic. Mixing the conspiracy theories with misinformation/disinformation, the narratives accused the religious and ethnic minority groups to have been responsible with the pandemic in Indonesia. In addition to the widespread prejudice and hate speech directed towards religious and ethnic minorities through online media, there is notable under-representation of religious and ethnic minority groups in Indonesian mainstream media.

Meanwhile, the concentration of media ownership and the active involvement of media owners in the Indonesian political sphere has led to increasing political partisanship of media. This has led to the involvement of the media in persecution of religious minorities or in favorable with the intolerant narratives being promoted by intolerant groups.

Considering the critical role that both mainstream and social media plays in affecting public perception on religious and ethnic minorities and their rights, Search seeks to carry out digital media listening to capture online conversations about FoRB and identify key actors who influence them. In addition to media editors, the results of the digital media listening will be shared with selected youth content creators as an input to their planned contents. The input will help them align their contents with those becoming trending topics on FORB issues at contemporary moments or locations.

Scope of Work

The scope of work of the consultant(s) will include the following:

●       Carry out digital media listening.

o   Digital media listening shall be conducted two times during the duration of the contract.

• The first phase of digital media listening will be carried out at the beginning of September 2023, and will encompass online conversations in the month of July to August 2023.
• The second phase of digital media listening will be carried out at the beginning of October 2023 and will encompass online conversations in the month of September 2023.

o   Information will be gathered from social media platforms and mainstream online media. The list of                 platforms and online media will be proposed by the consultant and approved by Search.

o   Information gathered through digital media listening will include:

•  Conversations and narratives related to FoRB (including positive/ negative sentiment) based on keywords that will be discussed with Search.
• List of key actors (social media accounts, mainstream media) that produce or influence conversations related to FoRB in Indonesia.

o   Digital media listening will encompass conversations at the national level in Indonesia and in the following         locations: Greater Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, and D.I. Yogyakarta.

o   Prepare presentation of findings from the digital media listening in a format that will allow for action-oriented      discussions with youth content creators and media editors. The consultant will prepare a presentation for each        instance of digital media listening conducted and share the presentations with Search for approval.

●       Present digital media listening findings.

o   The consultant will present findings from the digital media listening to content creators and media editors     during two rounds of workshops that will be held in Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, and Yogyakarta.

o The first round of workshops will be held in September (Jakarta and Bandung) and October (Solo and     Yogyakarta) 2023. The consultant will present findings from the first phase of the digital media listening once per     workshop activity in each city (four presentations in total).

o  The second round of workshops will be held in November (Jakarta and Bandung) and December (Solo and     Yogyakarta) 2023. The consultant will present findings from the second phase of the digital media listening once     per workshop activity in each city (four presentations in total).

o The consultant will also participate in four online mentoring activities led by Search’s local partner,        Campaign, to provide insight to FoRB narratives that need to be addressed by content creators under Search’s          Creator Space Youth Fellowship program.

 

  Deliverables

Within the contract period, the consultant(s) is expected to complete the above-mentioned scope of work. The deliverables are as follows:

1. Inception report and work plan completed within the first 7 days. The report should have:

1. The detailed approach/ methodology for conducting the digital media listening, which includes:

       i the digital media listening tools especially any crawling engine tools that will be used to gather                          information on online conversations and the method for analysis.

     ii suggested keywords, social media platforms and online mainstream media websites, as well as key                 actors (social media accounts/ specific media houses) that will be analyzed in the digital media listening         process.

2. A draft outline for the presentation of findings from the digital media listening process.
3. Finalized timeline for delivery of the consultant’s work.

           A copy of the inception report should be submitted in Bahasa Indonesia, in MS Word format.

2. Presentation of findings from the first phase of the digital media listening in Bahasa Indonesia.
3. Presentation of findings from the second phase of the digital media listening in Bahasa Indonesia.
4. Approved final report outlining:

1. Key findings from results of the first and second phase of digital media listening.
2. Challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations based on the consultant’s experience in carrying out the first and second phase of the digital media listening process, as well as presentation at the eight in-person workshops and four mentoring activities across the project’s target areas.

The review and feedback may take multiple rounds depending on the quality of the report. No final payment will be made until the report is formally approved by the Search team. A copy of the final report should be submitted in Bahasa Indonesia, in MS Word format.

The consultancy period will be between August 21, 2023, to January 12, 2024. The consultant(s) should be willing to travel to the project’s target areas of Jakarta, Bandung, Solo and Yogyakarta.

SN	Activities	Deadline
1	Application Deadline	August 16, 2023
2	Signing of the contract	August 21, 2023
3	Inception report and work plan approval	August 28, 2023
4	Approved presentation of findings from the first phase of the digital media listening	September 15, 2023
5	Present first phase of findings at the workshops in Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, and Yogyakarta	September 18 – October 31, 2023
6	Approved presentation of findings from the second phase of the digital media listening	October 13, 2023
7	Present second phase of findings at the workshops in Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, and Yogyakarta	November 1 – December 15, 2023
8	Approved final report	January 5, 2024

Remuneration

The schedule of payment of the consultancy fee is as follows:

1.      20% will be paid upon approval of the inception report and work plan.

2.      30% will be paid upon approval of presentation of findings from the first phase of the digital media listening.

3.      30% will be paid upon approval of presentation of findings from the second phase of the digital media listening.

4.      20% will be paid upon approval of the final report.

No Payment will be made unless the report is approved by the Search Indonesia team.

Supervision of the Consultant(s)

The consultant(s) will work under the Program Manager in collaboration with program staff of Search Indonesia.

Qualifications:

         Experience with conducting digital media listening and mapping.

         Strong ability to write a high quality fully edited report in Bahasa Indonesia.

Application process:

Interested candidates should send their technical proposal, financial proposal detailing the cost calculations (including individual/ team travel to Jakarta, Bandung, Solo, and Yogyakarta for in-person workshops), and CV/ portfolio that demonstrates the consultant’s experience with digital media listening and mapping to phandayani@sfcg.org by August 16, 2023. For further information, please contact grespati@sfcg.org.

All Search Employees must adhere to the values: Collaboration- Audacity - Tenacity - Empathy - Results. 

In accordance with these values, Search enforces compliance with the Code of Conduct and related policies on Anti Workplace Harassment, Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Conflict of Interest, and Anti-fraud. Search is committed to safeguarding the interests, rights, and well-being of children, youth, and vulnerable adults with whom it is in contact and to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for children, youth, and vulnerable adults.  Search for Common Ground does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. View our values here.

What We Do | Search for Common Ground SFCG Team (www.sfcg.org)