Webmaster

USC Annenberg Press seeks a Webmaster to oversee the International Journal of Communication’s (IJoC) transition to a new platform, maintain the new platform, manage system updates for the IJoC system and Annenberg Press website, create and distribute promotional blurbs, perform system training, and complete some graphic design to support the upgrade and ongoing web needs.

USC Annenberg Press is committed to excellence in communication scholarship, journalism, media research, and application. To advance this goal, we edit and publish prominent scholarly publications that are both innovative and influential, and that chart new courses in their respective fields of study. Annenberg Press is among the first to deliver journal content online free of charge, and devoted to the wide dissemination of its content. USC Annenberg Press continues to offer scholars and readers a forum that meets the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from anywhere in the world.

The International Journal of Communication (IJoC) is an online, multi-media, academic journal that adheres to the highest standards of peer review and engages established and emerging scholars from anywhere in the world. The International Journal of Communication is an interdisciplinary journal that, while centered in communication, is open and welcoming to contributions from the many disciplines and approaches that meet at the crossroads that is communication study. According to the latest 2024 statistics from Google Scholar, IJoC ranks 7th among all Humanities, Literature & Arts journals, and 9th among Communication journals in the world. IJoC’s H-index of 29, which was updated in July 2024, also means there have been at least 2,074 articles that make up 6,426 or more citations over the last five years.

Key Functions

• Provide the Annenberg Press and IJoC websites technical support for the Annenberg Press team, the journal’s article reviewers (roughly 2,000 people/annually) and authors.
• This includes monitoring website performance, uptime and analytics; diagnosing outages and performance issues; administering hosting; editing content and updating the theme of the website’s front-end; restoring missing files and troubleshooting other data loss issues; eliminating spam accounts and spam submissions (account auditing); troubleshooting file and data issues within the editorial process; performing required site maintenance and working with the Annenberg Press team to set maintenance downtime windows; exporting reports from the IJoC database required for reporting and other projects (e.g., letters of certification).
• Manage, complete, and maintain IJoC’s migration (in-progress) to a new platform.
• Maintaining IJoC’s website mass email functionality that sends email eblasts (announcements of publications each month) through the system to nearly 6,000 (published authors’) email addresses multiple times per year.
• This number will increase to all users (nearly 100,000) when the system can send this many emails; Maintaining up-to-date backups of the IJoC website (codebase, database and files); Formatting and managing article asset files (e.g., pagination) to support editors within IJoC’s editorial process; Managing IJoC’s user accounts: Disabling unused accounts (account auditing) and setting password policies.
• Checking IJoC article references in Google Scholar and checking for Google Scholar spam
• This includes making recommendations for new services, software, and operational processes to improve the Annenberg Press team’s sustainability and effectiveness.
• Analyzes, designs, implements and maintains technical solutions and multimedia content and systems for a school's or department website. Communicates and consults with faculty and staff to determine and define website needs and functionality. Reviews and recommends hardware and software needed for website development.
• Coordinates the content and organization of static and dynamic data with faculty, staff and other units, but is typically not responsible for content development.
• Investigates and analyzes various specialized computing options and solutions.
• Troubleshoots system errors and bugs.
• Maintains and modifies the school's or department's website including content, graphical and multimedia displays and communications. Gathers feedback for website improvement and enhancement. Tests, maintains and ensures functionality of links. Monitors website for consistency, cross-referencing and compliance with university standards for website content and development.
• Consults with faculty and staff, such as writers, graphic designers, managers and administrators, to design, develop and implement web pages and interactive information delivery systems. Advises personnel and/or departments on the proper production, technical and design technique specific to website development.
• Designs website to maximize accessibility, usability and effectiveness. May utilize search engines to maximize user's ability to search site content. May be involved in the selection of web hosting providers and/or the overall design of the web infrastructure.
• Integrates multimedia content with web-based educational software applications, including databases and communication protocols. May coordinate process of integration of multimedia content with project team members responsible for overall application architecture, as needed.
• Researches, gathers, organizes and summarizes data for reports. Analyzes data for trends or conclusions and presents results.
• Performs other related duties as assigned or requested.

Job Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will have knowledge of university computing environments, experience with interfacing external applications to information servers, knowledge and experience with web scripting and programming languages, graphical operating systems, open source technologies, as well as online services and secure transactions, and knowledge of database and software applications.
• At least two years of web development and website management experience. Experience as a webmaster for an academic journal is preferred but not required.
• Experience in web page design, website management and web graphic design. Proficient in the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). Proficiency in working with managing open source LAMP-based content management systems is preferred.
• Basic design skills.
• BA degree, MA or communications academic background preferred.

Applications should be submitted via usccarreers.usc.edu and should include the following:

• Resume
• A cover letter (Our system will allow you to add additional documentation by clicking the “upload” button in the same section where you attach your resume.)

Additional Information:

• Job openings are posted for a minimum of (5) five business days. This job may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended, so please apply on the same business day if interested.

• This is a full-time, hybrid staff position. Evening or weekend work may be necessary to meet deadlines or solve specific problems.

• The hourly range for this position is $36.00 - $38.00. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.

• USC has excellent benefits, including health benefits for staff and their family with access to the renowned university medical network; eligibility for retirement plans; tuition benefits for staff and their family; central Los Angeles location with easy access to commuter trains, transit subsidy program, buses and free tram pick up services; discounts to sporting and other campus events.

About the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, master's and bachelor's degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school's comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world. For additional information, see our website: https://annenberg.usc.edu/.

USC is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or USC policy. We provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants with questions about access or requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact USC Human Resources by phone at (213) 821-8100, or by email at uschr@usc.edu. Inquiries will be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law.

USC will consider for employment all qualified applicants with criminal records in a manner consistent with applicable laws and regulations, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for employers and the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and with due consideration for patient and student safety. Please refer to the Background Screening Policy Appendix Dfor specific employment screen implications for the position for which you are applying. 

Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree, Combined work experience and education as equivalent Minimum Experience: 2 years Minimum Field of Expertise: Experience in Web page design, Web site management and Web graphic design. Knowledge of Web programming techniques and protocols. Knowledge of multiple operating systems.