Thursday, October 27, 2011

Citizen Journalism

Languages, Photography, Film Noir, Inheritance Tax, Philosophy, Jewellery Design, Massage ... and Citizen Journalism. These are all courses offered by Queen's University's Open Learning Programme.

QUB Open Learning Citizen Journalism class

I met some of the students on the ten week Citizen Journalism course on Wednesday evening. They're half way through their programme, and have been looking at the development and value of citizen journalism, old media versus new media, blogging. Having talked to a real live blogger (cough), they'll now go on look at newsworthiness, ethics, legality as well as building their own blog and posting to it on their chosen subjects.

Talking to tutor Patrick Toland about QUB Citizen Journalism Open Learning course (mp3)

Patrick Toland is the course tutor, and I spoke to him after Wesnesday's session was over. He's pleased with the way the course is going, and hopes it will be run again.

It's a well constructed course and surprisingly thoughtful as well as practical. Perhaps in a year's time some of the students will still be blogging and feeding their passions and interests back into society. I'm looking forward to tracking down what they write about.

You can browse through the current prospectus or keep an eye on the Open Learning website if you fancy signing up for a course or two.

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