New Delhi: Journalists now have the equivalent of a journalism school available at the click of a mouse. The cyberspace offers rich resources to hone their professional skills.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has collaborated with the Thomson Foundation, the Britain-based media training and consultancy group, and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association to produce a handbook for journalists from developing countries on the use of Internet for media.
This training handbook, written by journalist and trainer Martin Huckerby, calls itself "a resource (with a printed manual and a CD) designed for both print and broadcast journalists and journalism students in developing countries around the globe".
The CD contains extra resources and lesson plans for trainers. While soft copies are available on the UNESCO website, hard copies can be requested through Hara Prasad Padhy of UNESCO ([email protected]).
The Gender for Journalists toolkit, developed from the Commonwealth Press Union, is designed "to raise awareness in news rooms worldwide of gender inequality and the crucial role that media can play to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women".
Author and Britain-based media and gender consultant Trish Williams says, "The 20th century saw many initiatives by the international community aimed at raising awareness of the inferior position that women have in society and the action that must be taken in order to redress the situation."
It can be accessed at www.cpu.org.uk/cpu-toolkits/gender_reporting/index.html.
"Gender tools" made available include suggestions for gender-sensitive reporting and language, conferences and conventions, and Internet links.
Another site focuses on citizen journalists. Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism", involves citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information".
A link via sourcewatch.org offers software, hardware and other tools revolutionising journalism.
Meanwhile, the New Media Lab (NML) at Rhodes University, Grahamstown in South Africa, is also working on a resource website for journalists and bloggers.
The NML has been credited with several media projects using free and open source software platforms in partnership with civil society organisations and mainstream media, which can be accessed at nml.ru.ac.za.
The France-headquartered Reporters sans frontieres has also come out with its own "Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents", which is available for free download from www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542.
It explains basic concepts from 'what is a blog' to the language used for blogging, tools available, how to start and run a blog, what ethics are involved, getting your blog picked up by search engines and personal accounts from bloggers including in Iran and Nepal.
There are also tips for 'cyber dissidents' on how to blog anonymously, technical ways to get around censorship, ensuring your e-mail is "truly private" and more.
Within India, there are a number of initiatives, right from thehoot.org - a website run by Delhi-based media commentator Sevanti Ninan - to a number of journalism-related networks on the mega mailing list network Yahoogroups.com.
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