A NJ Non-Profit Company 501 c(3)
Spring 2024
Online Journalism Program
We are currently running our spring high school
JOURNALISM MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Funded by a grant from The Civic Information Consortium, this free program for high school students provides a foundation in journalism and media production.
This course was developed for students looking to learn more about journalism, media studies, and media production. Students completing the program will receive a certificate and digital badge credential.
Introduction
This online Journalism Mentorship Program provide a unique pre-college learning experience for high school students curious about journalism, media production, and community storytelling. Through 12-weeks of online modules participants will complete college-level training in practical skills like recording and editing. They will also take on creative projects, gaining experience producing journalistic stories from their local communities. Each participant will be matched with a mentor currently enrolled in a college journalism program, who will provide them weekly guidance and feedback as well as insight into college preparedness and success.
The Mission
The Journalism Mentorship Program aims to spark the interest of pre-college-age New Jersey youth in storytelling, journalism and community engagement. By encouraging curiosity and preparedness in these fields, the program seeks to increase the number of individuals participating in local journalism and to improve democracy, equity and diversity in public discourse. Participants will gain a greater understanding of modern journalism and take their increase awareness back to their schools, families and surrounding communities.
Through the mentorship relationship, participants will not receive personalize support in their learning but also preparation to enter and succeed in a postsecondary journalism/media educational pathways. The mentors serve as positive role models, sharing their college and internship experiences along with encouraging the high school students to focus on their academics and larger goals. Parents may also gain insight into the process for college admissions and preparing for college life.
Spring 2024 Online Journalism Program Schedule
March 18th to June 7th (Spring 2024 Program)
Students enrolled in the program can expect to spend approximately 3 hours per week working on lessons and assignments and will also meet weekly with their mentor.
Program Cost is Free to High School Students accepted into the program. Maximum enrollment for this mentorship program is 20 students. Enrollment deadline is March 8th.
Digital Badge
Digital badges are designed to recognize and validate specific achievements beyond traditional academic grades. The digital badge will be a digital, web-based, visual representation of the successful completion of the program and can be shared online and added to a digital portfolio.
Program Description
Journalism is a vital element of our society and ability to engage with our communities, from the local to the national and global. Journalists help us learn about what is happening around us and the issues impacting our lives. With constant technological changes in how we communicate, journalism and media are ever-evolving and dynamic fields.
In this program, you will experience what it is like to be a journalist in your community. You will face the challenges of how to put together an informative, accurate, effective and interesting story that respects its subject and audience. You will create original content using industry standard tools. Using various multimedia systems and formats, you will explore the foundations of development, content creation and distribution across multiple platforms. Focusing on multi-platform digital media, you will have the opportunity to write, produce and edit your own multimedia projects. You will be working alongside a college student mentor to assist you throughout this course.
Hands-On Learning Experiences
Students enrolled in this course will make a podcast episode and create their own news video featuring a story from their community. Mentors will meet with mentees virtually every week to guide them through the course content and help them complete their projects.
Students will gain experience practicing media creation in the following areas:
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Script Writing
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Audio Recording
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Recording and editing a podcast
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Video Production
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Video Editing
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Distribution across multimedia platforms
Read more about the projects - Click Here
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
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Discuss various journalistic digital media production workflows from concept to distribution.
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Differentiate between media formats and choose appropriate settings for starting a project.
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Write, produce, design, record and edit original content for websites, podcasts, and video productions.
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Develop, organize, and create a news website using cloud-based web development programs optimized for various media formats.
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Contribute to your community by developing a club or organization that promotes a more democratic news system in New Jersey.
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Understanding pathways to majoring in journalism at a post-secondary institution.
Course Objectives
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Students will develop and practice techniques necessary to create professional quality news media content.
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Students will be comfortable utilizing industry standard hardware and software to produce, record and edit news media content.
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Students will be able to create a professional quality news website using free software available on the internet.
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Students will understand how to integrate various news media content into a website.