The Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University (ACFJ) formally launches its multimedia journalism program in ceremonies at the Ateneo Art Gallery on Friday, June 1.
The program’s centerpiece is the Diploma in Multimedia Journalism, a one-year, seven-course program for Asian professional journalists offered using hybrid online learning methods.
“The program will give students a broad perspective and the practical skills to produce web-based news stories using text, photos, videos, audio and info-graphics,” according to Dr. DJ Clark, coordinator of the diploma program. Clark is a multimedia journalist for China Daily (Beijing) and director of visual journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
World Press Photo, the Dutch media NGO renowned for its annual global photography competition, gave support to develop the multimedia journalism curriculum for the program’s first offering which started in April 2011. With funds from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Press Photo “has conceived the program as a strategy to develop media institutions and promote their involvement in good governance,” according to Dr. Violet B. Valdez, ACFJ executive director.
Paul Linnarz, director of the Media Asia Programme of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, will speak at the program’s launch. The foundation has established ACFJ jointly with Ateneo and has continued to support it since 2000.
A scholarship program to support outstanding Asian journalists admitted to the program was also established. Grantees are selected on the basis of their potentials for contributing to media development in their societies, Valdez said. Among the 2011 grantees are eight journalists, three of them women, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Philippines.
Twelve journalists, including a Swiss journalist working in Vietnam, are among the students in the pilot offering of the program which ends in June. With the success of the pilot offering, Valdez said, the program is continuing with a second batch of 12 students coming from 7 Asian countries including Japan, Myanmar, India and Nepal.
Among the subjects in the coursework are Mobile Journalism, Convergence Theory, Multiplatform Practice and Interactive Media Literacy. A final project which the student presents to a jury caps the requirements.
An international faculty that includes David Campbell, professor at Durham University (UK), a leading academic and observer of global media trends and Stephen Quinn, well known Australian author presently editor at the South China Morning Post (verify). Also in the faculty is Kim Kierans, professor of journalism and the vice president of the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
ACFJ runs two other academic programs, the M.A. in Journalism and the Diploma in Photojournalism. All three programs are designed for Asian working journalists, use hybrid online learning and are taught by an international faculty.
