The Fake Celebrity Endorsement (FCE) project seeks to appoint a psychologist for a six-month consultancy position in September. The ideal person would be keen to research cyber-victimisation and to write about it. The psychologist’s work and payment is negotiable, but he or she would need to contribute at least ten hours of work every month for six months. The contractor would ideally contribute by: (a) reviewing a semi-structured interview questionnaire; (b) reading cyber victimisation scholarship; (c) adding its insights to the team’s research proposal and first manuscript.
For background, the FCE team has done preliminary digital forensics fieldwork that identified the massive size of this phishing cybercrime, and why it’s impossible to track the perpetrators. The team has done qualitative research into the scam’s typical victims, plus preliminary interviews with celebrities, or their representatives. Based on these preliminary efforts, the team is finalising a research proposal for cyber-victimisation scholarship concerning; (i) SA celebrities’ experiences in responding to social media advert identity-jacking, (ii) the harms they experienced, and (iii) what worked (or not) in combating this seemingly intractable cybercrime.
The FCE identified a need for a psychologist to help by fulfilling the two major responsibilities:
1. Attend a monthly online meeting
The psychologist would contribute to online meetings with updates on the literature, plus feedback on the team’s research proposal, its fieldwork and/or research outputs.
2. Assist with scholarly outputs
The psychologist has an opportunity to contribute as a reviewer and editor of the first FCE manuscript. A strong contribution will be recognised by co-authorship.
Minimum requirement
A postgraduate degree in psychology, and experience in assisting individuals against cyber- victimisation.
Remuneration
The budget for 10 hours of work is negotiable according to the professional’s level of experience and typical industry remuneration. The specialist will invoice TNF’s Academic Free Speech and Digital Voices (AFSDV) cost center. Payment will be organised under the TNF research focus, Digital Visibility Risks .
Application deadline
Please submit your application to Dr. Travis Noakes by the 1st of September at noakest@cput.ac.za. As FCE’s principal investigator, he will review applicants in the first week of September, and then notify the successful applicant in the second week.
