EvN: Citizen Journalism Trainer at Grocott’s Mail

“I’m 1 of the people who were there this morning, & I really enjoyed the 1st course. You really know your stuff. Thembeni” – Twitter message to @Elviravannoort.

My first Citizen Journalism class at local Grahamstown community newspaper Grocott’s Mail (GM) is history. Eleven participants this morning learned what a citizen journalist is, what news is and how they can generate their own story ideas.

It’s exciting to be part of the project named Iindaba Ziyafika (The news is coming). “The project focuses on developing innovative ways of using new media technologies to facilitiate community journalism, and is funded by a grant from the US-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation“, explains the GM website concisely.

Part of the training were a number of practical exercises and a slideshow.

Course outline

Week 1: What is Grocott’s Mail about? What is a citizen reporter?
Week 2: A nose for news: what is newsworthy? Basics of good journalism.
Week 3: Writing a publishable news story: the lead and story structures.
Week 4: Interviews, observation, sources, facts and ethics.
Week 5: Photography: how to take better photos with your cellphone. Introduction to basic photo editing.
Week 6: Producing citizen journalism.

GM is excited about the potential that the Grocott’s Mail Citizen Journalism Newsroom holds for encouraging and empowering all citizens of Grahamstown to more actively engage in debates and discussions about important issues in their lives through producing and publishing their own original content. In short, the Grocott’s Mail Citizen Journalism Newsroom is intended to foster a keener sense of community awareness, involvement and, ultimately, pride.

Links

For more information please visit the GM website, the Citizen Journalism Newsroom info page and the productions of the previous course.