© 2020 Fondazione YMCA Italia - P.IVA 04366320879 - CAR del MIUR 62758HYN
Fondazione YMCA Italia
FORMAZIONE | MASTER
Master in Digital Journalism
From Web Tools to Science-driven Investigative Project
Description
The initiative is unique in its kind. Indeed, it combines a theoretical course with the opportunity for participants to take part in time-consuming in-depth investigations which will be published in news outlets in different countries. The program training sessions consist of both classes covering digital investigative tools and techniques and workshops enabling the use of such tools and techniques to conduct scientifically-sound research. Participants will learn how to produce unbiased long-from stories on the most pressing issues of our global society, while acquiring the entrepreneurail skills required to develop and monetize long-term projects.
Training
Classes will take place a week per month, covering online research, data scraping, analysis and visualization, company tracking, fact-checking, science-proof methodology, access to documents, web publishing, multimedia storytelling, remote teamwork, crowdsourcing, project management and fundraising, privacy protection, legal liability.
Workshops will be held during the other three weeks of the month. Participants will be divided into different groups. Each group will attend one single workshop covering a specific topic for the whole duration of the academic program. Topics will relate to conflicts between private and public interests in the areas of public health, environment protection, food security, natural resources, climate change, migration flows, artificial intelligence. The selection of topics will prioritize those which include one or more of the following tracks: money, crime, lobbying, geopolitics, war, injustice, disinformation. Each topic will intersect multiple areas and tracks, as well as national and global angles. A steering committee (program manager and workshop leaders) will agree on the list of topics, the groups composition and the assignment of a specific topic to each group.
Classes and workshops will be inter-linked, maning that classes will help participants to use tools and techniques to investigate specifically the selected topics.
INVESTIGATIONS
Each group/workshop will function as a full-fledged reporting team; investigating the assigned topic.
One leader (journalist/researcher) per group will coordinate the work of the team members, guiding and supervising them in the stage of research and ensuring editorial oversight during the stage of content production. Leaders will also help participants to identify scientists that can be interviewed to get a clear understanding of the technical aspects of the target topic.
Each investigation will result into a series of monthly episodes: each month a new episode, linked with the previous and the following episode, will unveil a new aspect of the investigation.
The episodes of each investigation will be published in a number of news outlets acting as media partners.
POST-PROGRAM WORK PLACEMENT
Selected participants will be hired by the Master’s feature magazine at the end of the program.
ADVISORY BOARD
The Board will consist of outstanding figures in the world of journalism and communicaton, including media partners editors, who may assist the Steering Committee in its decisions and will also give regular talks to participants about journalism-related issues which are relevant to both the goals and the topics of the Master program.
ORGANIZER
YMCA Foundation
TIME FRAME
Launch conference: December 2020
Academic program: January-October 2021
DURATION AND VENUE OF TRAINING SESSIONS
Two-three hours via e-learning or web conference platforms
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