User:MikyM/Wikinews course at the Faculty of Media and Communication of Singidunum University

Note: This is a short summary in English. A detailed description of the entire project and research is available in Serbian

Wikinews course at the Faculty of Media and Communication of Singidunum University

The Wikinews course at the Faculty of Media and Communication aimed to introduce a new method of training students. Instead of students coming to inadequate places, Wikinews team , in cooperation with the Ebart Media Archive, made it possible for students to complete their training in the premises of their faculty. This is made possible by the fact that a large part of the Wikinews editorial office is located on the Internet and thanks to partners and good organization, modern equipment and space were provided. With the help of computers and access to the global network, it was possible to access Wikinews data at any time and in any place. Also, thanks to Ebart's electronic archive, each course participant had access to all the necessary information from the newspaper.

The work plan with students was divided into four segments. The course was implemented between March and November 2010.

The main topics and skills that are training were:

• Introduction to new media
• Internet
• Portal
• Events and news
• News sources
• Journalistic Writing
• Criteria of good writing
• The structure of a journalistic story
• The inverted pyramid rule
• News
• Forms of journalistic writing (expression)
• Wikinews
• How to write for online media
• Getting to know Wikinews
• Writing rules for Wikinews
• News editing
• Reporting from the field
• Original reportage
• Manifestations and events covering

Project results and research conclusions

One of the goals related to the further development of Wikinews in Serbian is related to more ambitious information projects (investigative journalism, continuous and systematic monitoring of certain types of events and phenomena such as social, cultural, economic ...), as well as informing about the ethics of journalism and practical training related to the journalistic code of ethics in Serbia as well as its implementation.

The work on training students of the Faculty of Media and Communications aimed to create a potential base of advanced collaborators on this project, who could be engaged in regular content creation on Wikinews, but also in special and larger events that deserve special attention and engagement more people at the same time, or in different periods. After all, analyzes show that most of the content on Wikinews is written, modified or administered by the most active core of users.

The course of the project so far has shown that training for different forms and approaches in creating content on new media is very necessary and useful. The project participants, although students of the Faculty of Media and Communications, had very different levels of training in using various contents on the Internet: from those who are very good at it, to students who know only the most basic things. However, during the first stages of training, all of them made significant progress. Using a modern media archive, such as Ebart's, was unknown to all of them. During the training, they learned how text indexing works, and how to find the desired information or specific newspaper texts. They successfully applied what they learned in the tasks they were given, especially for providing additional information, beyond what PR services provide and what visitors can see or hear themselves. This significantly improves the quality of online journalism and gains credibility.

The course was planned as a three-month project, however, due to the impressive results, it was extended to 8 months. The course participants processed over 900 news stories and covered two major cultural events: Cinema City (one of the largest film festivals in the country) and Night of Museums (the largest GLAM event). Although there was interest in further implementation of the project, due to lack of funds, the project was completed and closed after this period. However, in addition, statistical data show the growth of understanding and application of neutral speech and objective speech and writing, the correct way of reporting and recognizing news, as well as the use of modern technologies in their work.