Digital Journalism for Eastern Europe

Participants from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine will acquire smart skills and deep knowledge about mobile publishing, doing online research, and internet security. This blended learning course consists of two attendance phases in Germany and one intensive e-learning module. Scholarships are available.
Journalism means collecting, evaluating and publishing information, and this definition also applies in the digital world. Each technical advance opens up new possibilities for research and publishing.
To take advantage of these opportunities, journalists must constantly build and update their skills. And they have to cope with a dangerous risk – the lack of digital security. Journalists will have to adapt to this – and repeatedly because of ever shorter innovation cycles.

Against this background, the Interlink Academy for International Dialog and Journalism is offering the ‘Digital Journalism for Eastern Europe’ blended-learning training program. Participating journalists from Eastern Europe are given an opportunity to update their technical skills and discuss current media ethics issues. Networking and sharing the newly gained knowledge with their colleagues back home will also play an important role in the program.

Skills taught

By participating in the program, Fellows acquire skills in the following fields:

Investigative research
Journalistic forms of presentation on the mobile internet
Technical production of web content
Filming and editing web videos
Digital security
Attendance and E-Learning

“Digital Journalism for Eastern Europe” is a blended-learning program. It consists of three stages: two attendance phases in Germany and one e-learning phase. During their two study stays in Hamburg and Berlin, the participants acquire new journalistic skills in intensive sessions of lectures, practical group work, discussions and visits to innovative working newsrooms, all supported by the teaching staff.

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These attendance phases are separated by an e-learning phase during which the Fellows put into practice what they learnt at the Interlink Academy and work on journalistic assignments as well as participate in so-called webinars (virtual lectures) in their familiar working and living environments at home. The e-learning phase requires an average time commitment of 8 hours a week. After the end of the course, the Interlink Academy remains in close contact with the participants through its Alumni and mentoring services.

16 August to 28 August 2015: Attendance phase in Hamburg (Stage1)
29 August 2015 to 12 November 2015: E-learning phase / Participants study and work in their home countries with support via Interlink’s e-learning platform (Stage 2)
13 November to 19 November 2015: Attendance phase in Berlin (Stage 3)
Trainers

Courses at the Interlink Academy are run by highly specialized lecturers and trainers from Germany and abroad who have considerable experience with international study groups. Great attention is paid to the journalistic expertise of lecturers as well as their experience as educators.

Sponsors and Partners

The program is sponsored by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the ZEIT Foundation and the Hamburg Media School. Other partners are: Netzwerk Recherche, the Regional Press Development Institute in Ukraine, the Bumaga Media Group/Paperpaper in Saint-Petersburg, the Independent Journalism Center in Moldova, the Georgia Association of Regional Broadcasters, the Azerbaijan Journalist’s Network and the Investigative Journalists Network in Armenia.

Costs

Participants receive a scholarship grant to cover course fees and international travel costs. During the attendance phases, the participants are housed in guesthouses or hotels at the expense of the Interlink Academy, and receive an adequate meals allowance.

Who can participate?

The “Digital Journalism for Eastern Europe” program is aimed at professional journalists from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine.

Applicants are expected to have demonstrated their journalistic talent as a member of an editorial team or as a freelancer. They should be interested in the new technical opportunities for doing research and publishing on the Internet. An understanding of the role of independent media in democratic societies is a given.