Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Short Courses of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Brazilian Journalists Study Digital Journalism in Online Course Brazilian Journalists Study Digital Journalism in Online Course

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering its second course in Portuguese for Brazilian journalists: Introduction to Journalism 2.0: Opportunities and Challenges in the Digital Era. The course takes place from Sep. 8 to Oct. 5, 2008.

The course reflects the Knight Center’s new focus as a digital media training center and was developed by journalist and professor Carlos Castilho of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Castilho 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.

The course will introduce concepts related to digital journalism, including these topics:

*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 course is free of charge, and all of its content is offered online. Participants will work at their own pace, according to their own schedules. However, students will be expected to complete weekly assignments and to participate in online discussions.

The course is divided into weekly modules that include Flash presentations (approximately 25 minutes a week), weekly readings (some required, others recommended), two weekly homework assignments, and participation in a blog, chats and discussion forum with the instructor and students.

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 has been dedicated to the production of journalistic content for the Web.

He is concluding a Master’s degree in Media and Knowledge at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, and he teaches university courses in Online Journalism. He is a member of the leadership of the Observatório da Imprensa website, where he edits the CodigoAberto weblog.

He will be assisted in this course by Vanessa Higgins, a Brazilian journalist who is currently completing her doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked with the Knight Center since its founding in 2002 and has helped the Center to develop its online education programs.

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.

Added Mar 20, 12:23, 2009