News about the activities of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
Brazilian Journalists can Apply for Online Course: Introduction to Journalism 2.0Brazilian Journalists can Apply for Online Course: Introduction to Journalism 2.0
Knight Center instructor Carlos Castilho explains the content of the course, 'Introduction to Journalism 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Era,' in this video.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering a revamped version of its popular online course in Portuguese, Introduction to Journalism 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Era. The course, from Nov. 9 to Dec. 6, 2009, is designed specifically for Brazilian journalists who want to learn more about how to work in a Web environment.
The class was developed by journalist and professor Carlos Castilho of Santa Catarina, Brazil. It reflects the Knight Center’s new focus as a digital media training center. Offered for the fifth time, the course has been updated to include advances in software and technology, such as the Twitter boom. Castilho, who translated into Portuguese the book by U.S. journalist Mark Briggs: Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive: A digital literacy guide for the information age, will provide students with an overarching view of online journalism, touching on all the various multi-media elements, such as video, audio, text, etc.
Concepts and topics related to digital journalism to be introduced include:
New tools and duties for Web journalism
Weblogs and podcasts: journalism alternatives
Audio and digital photos in online journalism
Interactivity among journalists and the public in the digital era
Multimedia convergence: a new journalistic environment
The class is free of charge, and all of its content is online. Participants will work at their own pace, according to their own schedules. However, students will be expected to complete weekly assignments and participate in online discussions. Journalists can expect to spend 10 hours a week on the course, which is highly interactive and includes weekly chats and forums.
The work is divided into four weekly modules that include Flash presentations (approximately 25 minutes a week), weekly readings (seven per week—some required, others recommended), about two weekly homework assignments, and participation in a blog and discussion forum with the instructor and other students. Each week students will complete practical exercises applying the techniques they have learned. For example, they will create a mini-documentary using text, audio, video and photo editing skills.
Applications will be accepted online until Oct. 25 at 10:00 P.M. (Brasília time). Those who are selected to participate in the course will be notified the week of Nov. 5.
Students who successfully complete the course will receive a certificate of participation from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin.
Carlos Castilho is a professional journalist with 35 years of experience in newspapers, radio stations, and news agencies. He was a TV news director, foreign correspondent for Brazilian and European publications, and since 1995 Castilho has been dedicated to the production of journalistic content for the Web. He currently teaches university courses in online journalism in Brazil.
Castilho will be assisted in this course by Vanessa Higgins Joyce, a Brazilian journalist who is currently completing her doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin and Summer Harlow, a graduate student in the doctoral program in journalism also at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created 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. Its main objective is to help journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean to develop their own self-sustaining training programs to elevate the professional and ethical levels of journalism in the Americas.
In 2007, the Center received an additional five years of funding from the Knight Center to reorient its work as a digital media training center for Latin American and Caribbean journalism.
