Media Skills for Engaged Youth

The Elements of Style is a famous short book written by William Strunk and abridged by E. B. White over a hundred years ago. It had numerous editions and is still considered one of the best manuals for good writing in English. 

Please read carefully the section - Elementary Principles of Composition pp. 26-40.

The next topic in this course is the list of the ten elementary rules of good usage, a sort of top ten list of basic grammar rules in English, or the most common mistakes that people usually make. Our source for this is the already mentioned book Elements of Style written 100 years ago by William Strunk and modified half a century ago by Elwyn White.

Prezi presentation of the lecture can be found here. 

The Elements of Style is a famous short book written by William Strunk and abridged by E. B. White over a hundred years ago. It had numerous editions and is still considered one of the best manuals for good writing in English. 

Please read carefully the section - Elementary Rules od Usage pp. 13-25.

This website contains a list of a number of interactive quizzes on grammar and writing that you can take at will. They cover all the major fields such as: BASIC SENTENCE PARTS, VERBS AND VERBALS, CLAUSES & PHRASES, STRUCTURAL FLAWS, PUNCTUATION & BASIC MECHANICS, PRONOUN USAGE, STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS, NOTORIOUS CONFUSABLES, SPELLING, VOCABULARY and GENERAL GRAMMAR quizzes.

A useful summary of main points on style from John R. Trimble, Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing, such as:

1 “Getting Launched”
2 “Thinking Well”
3 "How to write a critical analysis"
4 "Openers"
5 "Middles"
6 "Closers"

Writing Skills Test Practice Exam: 45 Minutes—75 Questions

(developed by the Evergreen Valley College)

In the five passages that follow, certain words and phrases are underlined and numbered. In the right–hand screen, you will find alternatives for each underlined part. You are to choose the one that best expresses the idea, makes the statement appropriate for standard written English, or is worded most consistently with the style and tone of the passage as a whole. If you think the original is best, choose “NO CHANGE.”

You will also find questions about a section of the passage, or about the passage as a whole. These questions do not refer to an underlined portion of the passage, but rather are identified by a number or numbers in a box.

For each question, choose the alternative you consider best and click the corresponding button. Read each passage through once before you begin to answer the questions that accompany it. You cannot determine most questions without reading several sentences beyond the question. Be sure that you have read far enough ahead each time you choose an alternative.

Investigative journalism is often defined as a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. 

Organizations of investigative journalists 

Investigative Journalism Sources:

The Internet offers a number of useful, practical and insightful manuals about investigative journalism, with step-by-step guide on how to find a story, follow it, treat your sources, defining minimal and maximal hypothesis etc. 

   Ten Steps to Investigative Reporting By Lucinda S. Fleeson publication by the International Center for Journalists

"Broaden the Definition of Investigative Reporting 

Don’t limit yourself! Investigative reporting includes more than stories that expose corruption and criminal activity. Important and suitable topics include stories that explain how systems work or fail, or reconstruct a complex event. Reporters at many newspapers have found that readers have a great interest in how things work, what is going on, how it may affect ordinary people." 

Investigative Journalism, From BIRN’s Probe to Porn Vids, A short article by Serbian Award-winning investigative journalist Branko Čečen (in English) 

What is investigative journalism? Publication and website by Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Africa)       "By the time you read this chapter and worked through the exercises and reading, you'll know how to:

* Define the practice of investigative journalism; Discuss the mission of investigative journalists and some of the ground rules they need to observe; Discuss the skills and personal qualities investigative journalists need;  Identify topics and approaches appropriate for investigative stories; Discuss, critique, and derive pointers from examples of African and other investigative journalism." 

"the Casebook serves as a complementary material for training purposes, aiming to enhance the exchange of good practices and networking in investigative journalism throughout the world. It contains more than 20 worldwide recent investigative stories, covering a wide variety of topical subjects and of special interest to UNESCO such as freedom of information, good governance, social and legal issues, the environment, health and gender...,  followed by an explanation of how the authors conducted their research and the writing of the piece. Many of the authors belong to the Global Investigative Journalism Network, and the stories exemplify modern techniques and high standards.

Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Edited by Hugo de Burgh

Investigative Journalism is a critical and reflective introduction to the traditions and practices of investigative journalism. Beginning with a historical survey, the authors explain how investigative journalism should be understood within the framework of the mass media. They discuss how it relates to the legal system, the place of ethics in investigations and the influence of new technologies on journalistic practices.

 ISTRAŽIVAČKO NOVINARSTVO, published by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Sarajevo in 2009 (in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian)

In short, fact checking is the way of verifying the truthfulness of a text, sentence, claim, image, footage, clip or any form of media content we’re receiving, producing or publishing.

In this presentation, we will see:

Journalism ethics means ethical principles and good practices that journalists should use.  

 Society of Professional Journalists - SPJ Code of Ethics is one of the most influential and clearest expressions of ethical standards in journalism.

The four pillars of this ethics can be summarized as follows:

SEEK TRUTH AND REPORT IT - Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.

ACT INDEPENDENTLY  - The highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.

BE ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT -  means taking responsibility for one's work and explaining one’s decisions to the public.

MINIMIZE HARM - treat sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.

The Translational Youth Magazine (TYM) is a rebranded journal emerging from the Mediactive Youth initiative. It contains many texts of your young activists, from dozens of countries worldwide. Some of the young activists had their first articles published here, so we welcome your contribution, irrespective of whether you are a beginner or experienced author.

This video will guide you through the process of creating your own Youtube channel. It contains a step-by-step tutorial for beginners and describes how to create an account.  

In this section of the course, we will talk about Youth activism. Firstly, I will provide some details about Youth Activism in general, and then focus in particular on Youth Activism in the realm of the media. I will discuss issues such as: What is youth activism, why is it important, what forms of youth activism are there, how do young people become activists, how to use social media as a tool for youth activism and so on. We will then go to explore in some detail two representative cases of youth activism. The first case study will be dedicated to a documentary called Kony 2012, which became viral and led to an international intervention intended to bring down a suspected war criminal. The second study case is the story of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. 

A short opening lecture entitled Youth activism explaining the notion of youth activism. 

 Powerpoint presentation of the lecture can be found here.  

Kony 2012 is a documentary produced by a charity called Invisible children in 2012. The organisation Invisible Children was founded in 2004 by three filmmakers Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Lauren Poole to raise awareness and to bring to justice Joseph Kony, who was the leader of the Lords Resistance Army. This paramilitary formation was at the time responsible for the abduction of thousands of children, rape, pillage and it caused the displacement of over a million people in Uganda. In 2005, a year after Invisible Children was formed, Joseph Kony became the most wanted man by the International Criminal Court, and his actions were described as having no ulterior political or ethical motifs except him imposing his brutal power.

Kony 2012 is a 2012 American short documentary produced by Invisible Children, Inc. 

Social Media and Youth Activism Lecture address the issue of youth activism in the contemporary IT environment. Some scholars argue that youth activism today is at its lowest points. They emphasize movements such as those in the USA, for example, Black Panthers who fought for the rights of black and oppressed people in America, or student movement and anti-war movement during the Vietnam war. The students were also heavily involved in social justice for the civil rights movement, the women’s liberation movement, and gay rights, as well as environmental issues and freedom of speech, among other things. Today, some say, youth are self-centered, narcissistic and so on, and they take no part in civic participation. 

Others think that countless youth are civically engaged and involved in movements outside of traditional 

political groups. Kassimir concludes that “our understanding of contemporary youth activism – local and global, national and transnational – lags woefully behind the political practices of young people… Many young people have found their voices and are speaking up for change”.

So, how are young people using social media as tools for activism?

Facebook and Twitter are used resources for youth activism: technological advancement has necessitated a new way of understanding activism among young people. The nowadays world is being transformed by young people, “but crucially through means and methods that are unfamiliar to adults”.

 Powerpoint presentation of the lecture can be found here.  

Malala Yousafzai was only 17 when she received a Nobel Prize for peace for her struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Malala was born in the region known as the Swat valley in Pakistan, which is close to the Afghanistan border. Her family ran several schools in the region, and as a girl, she was a good pupil and dreamt of becoming a doctor. Her region had at times shifted under the control of the Taliban, who imposed strict laws in the places that they control and banned the girls from taking education under the threat of punishment or death.

A documentary about Malala called Class dismissed is available here.

In her Nobel lecture, Malala Yousafzai humbly emphasized that she is acting on behalf of thousands, even millions of young girls in the world who are deprived of education, and she also invited several of her young friends from different parts of the world who are fighting for the same thing to be present there during the ceremony. She is currently continuing her struggle and has opened a school for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and this school offers education and training to girls between 14 and 18 years of age. As the last part of the story of Malala Yousafzai and the ability of one young person to influence the world, we are giving here her Nobel Peace Prize speech in full.