Knight Center Develops Online Introductory Course in Digital Journalism for Caribbean Reporters and Editors

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, as part of its new focus as a digital media training center, has developed an introductory course to digital journalism that it will offer for the first time from March 3 to April 4, 2008, to journalists living and working in Caribbean countries.

The course, Journalism 2.0, was developed by U.S. journalist Mark Briggs, author of the book Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive, a digital literacy guide for the information age. It will be offered in English in partnership with the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM).

Spaces in the course are limited, and Caribbean journalists may apply online until Feb. 25, 2008. The Knight Center will repeat the course later in 2008 for journalists from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

“We expect strong demand for this course, and we will try to accommodate that demand as best as we can,” said Rosental Calmon Alves, director of the Knight Center.

“Whenever we introduce a new course, we like to start with a small group of students. While Caribbean journalists will have the first chance to take this class, the Knight Center will explore ways to repeat the course as soon as possible, and to offer it to larger groups throughout Latin America.”

The Knight Center is also developing similar courses in Spanish and Portuguese, Alves added.

Course Themes

The course will be conducted entirely on line and will cover five main areas:

*Introduction to Journalism 2.0. Understand the opportunities and challenges of practicing journalism in the digital age.

*Web 2.0 and an Eye on the Future. Learn how Web 2.0 sites expand the realm and responsibilities of today’s journalists.

*Blogs, Breaking News, and Headlines (Writing for the Web). Explore and critique the world of blogs, and learn to write strong web headlines.

*Multimedia Basics. Explore basic practices in photography and video production, and experiment with the technology.

*Multimedia Planning. Learn what makes a good multimedia story and how to get these pieces produced.

Course Specifics

Students will have several weekly assignments, all of which will be performed on line. They include viewing video lectures and PowerPoint presentations, reading lecture materials, and participating in discussion forums with the instructor and classmates. Students will also conduct weekly skills assignments, and one exam, which they will submit online for comment and grading by the instructor.

Many of the readings will come from Briggs’ book Journalism 2.0. The English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions can be downloaded for free from the Knight Center ’s website: http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/journalism20.php

Students will be expected to meet weekly deadlines but can choose their own hours to access the course and can work at their own pace and schedule. All participants who complete the course will receive a certificate from the Knight Center.

Applications from Caribbean journalists will be accepted until 0900 (Austin time) on Monday, Feb. 25 here: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/sos/survey/56847937/index.cfm.

Priority will be given to journalists with at least three years experience who work full time for print, electronic or online media; possess a basic command of computers and internet technology; have access to a digital camera that takes both still photos and video; and have limited opportunities to attend training courses.

About the Partners

Briggs is the Assistant Managing Editor for Interactive News at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Wash. He has contributed to textbooks, seminars, and conferences on new media and journalism, and some of the projects he has led have won national and regional awards. He will be assisted in the course by Amy Schmitz Weiss and Carlos Perez de Alejo, staff members of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

The ACM, founded in 2001, is an organization of journalist and media worker associations from throughout the Caribbean Basin. The organization will charge a US$30 fee to journalists selected to participate.

“The ACM is delighted that the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has chosen the Caribbean as the place to launch this course,” said Wesley Gibbings, president of the ACM.

“The role of new technologies in Caribbean development is being viewed as singularly important. Journalists have the opportunity to be in the leadership of such a revolution. Through our participation in this course, we signal that we accept the challenge.”

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created by Alves at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism in August 2002 thanks to a generous donation from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

In 2007, the Knight Center received a new five-year grant from the Knight Foundation to refocus its work as a digital media training center for Latin American and Caribbean journalism, and to expand its efforts to serve as an incubator for new journalism organizations.

A historic building in Trinidad is in danger of demolition. Please visit the web site and sign the petition.

Technorati Tags: trinidad and tobago, architecture, victorian, conservation, history, port of spain, boissiere house

Over at Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, David Sasaki has just announced the latest round of Rising Voices grant recipients. Among them is the Rising Voices project’s first Caribbean grantee: “Diary of an Inmate”, a Jamaica-based project which will attempt to counter the veneration of badboys and gang leaders by training prison inmates to blog and podcast. The project’s founder, Kevin Wallen, who has been doing exemplary work among inmates in Jamaica’s penal institutions through an organisation called (Students Expressing Truth), outlined the project as follows:

Through blogging, inmates will be able to tell their stories. They will be able to paint a realistic picture of life behind bars and the consequences of crime. Currently, Jamaica’s music and media idolize the ‘badman’ or ’shotta’ and portray as role models those who have been incarcerated. Many of our youths now think that prison is a ‘cool’ place to be, until they themselves are faced with the harsh truth. The Diary of an Inmate blog will allow all Jamaicans to learn about the realities of Jamaica’s overcrowded prison system with the hope that this will counteract the false ideas implanted by the media.

Congrats to Kevin and the “Diary of an Inmate” project. I look forward to seeing the results of this interesting experiment. And to the rest of you potential Caribbean applicants: what are you waiting on?

Technorati Tags: jamaica, global voices, outreach, prison, blogging, caribbean

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, has just announced another round of microgrant funding for citizen media outreach projects. Receive up to US$5,000 for projects designed to teach citizen media skills to “communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own”.

Read all about it here.

Sep 6, 2007, MIAMI and NEW YORK – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and MTV announced today the Knight News Challenge “Young Creators Award,” a new digital journalism grant program for young people age 25 and under anywhere in the world. The contest will award up to $500,000 to young creators with compelling ideas for using digitally delivered news and information to enhance physical communities – improving the lives of people where they live, work and vote. The new award is a component of the Knight News Challenge, an annual competition awarding $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. (more…)