Full-time Programs
EJRN - E-Journalism
Program Entry
SEPTEMBER
Program Length
One-year Ontario College Post-Graduate Certificate
| Contact: | E-mail: |
|---|---|
| Robert Washburn | rwashburn@loyalistc.on.ca |
On This Page
Highlights
- Dramatically increase your earning potential by next summer.
- Learn to turn “techno-toys” into tools for an exciting career.
- Develop a portfolio of published work during the program.
- Create content and complex page layouts for innovative, award-winning online publications.
- Demonstrate your skills during a prestigious eight-week internship, with the opportunity to graduate into a job.
Career Opportunities
Loyalist’s unique approach to e-journalism starts with training for jobs in mainstream media, then challenges students to define new formats for telling stories online. Graduates are prepared for careers in:
- traditional journalism
- e-journalism
- the communications industry
Graduates will find employment opportunities, or create their own, through:
- major news organizations
- web development companies
- communications firms
- digital and journalistic freelancing
- self-publishing
- building bridges to audiences by creating resources such as online newspapers
Program Description
The Internet is the ultimate democratic forum. This leading-edge program combines sound journalism training with the latest technologies to bring news,
information and entertainment to the public. Students use powerful emerging technologies such as:
- blogging
- podcasting
- streaming
- chat
- wireless technology
Students receive a solid technical background, plus a deeper understanding of the journalism principles forming the “E-3 team”: educating, engaging and empowering audiences.
Students are challenged to think laterally and apply their learned skills in the real world through community-based projects. Sample projects have included:
- a grassroots project using a news service to facilitate communication among local agricultural federations, empowering members to post their own information
- Moblogging (mobile blogging) using wireless, handheld Blackberry technology, allowing reporters to file stories to online news pages from as far away as Dubai
The program encourages experimentation with new forms of e-journalism.
- Students post to websites, including the award-winning Online Pioneer (www.thepioneer.com).
- A virtual laboratory cultivates experiments such as Online Democracy.
- Hands-on workshops teach the skills to edit and post text, images, graphics, audio and video, and use the latest software for live chat and streaming.
- All these experiments come together in final form with Portal, the E-journalism program’s online magazine www.portalonline.org. Students develop content, create complex layouts and post them online.
- Students are encouraged to develop projects of personal interest and demonstrate their creative potential to employers.
At the end of classes, students complete an eight-week internship. With transferable skills in interactive technology and multimedia, interns are often hired by news organizations, web companies and a host of other communications firms such as:
Approximate Cost
Tuition: $2,688 (two semesters)
Books and Supplies: $1,000
Consumables Fee: $450
Admission Requirements
High School Graduates – High school graduates must first complete either a college diploma or a university degree.
Loyalist Graduates – Loyalist’s students in the Print, Broadcast or Photojournalism programs are able to reserve a place in this program. Students who identify this choice no later than the third semester and successfully complete their initial program in the normal four semesters, can move directly into E-journalism program in fifth semester, starting in mid-August.
Direct entry from degree or diploma programs or work-related experience –
Applicants who have earned a degree or diploma from another recognized post-secondary institution are invited to apply. Applicants who have significant work-related experience will be considered for entry based on a review of their demonstrated competencies and academic credentials. Applicants missing key competencies may be offered conditional acceptance subject to the completion of a summer fast-track preparatory semester.
Curriculum
Semester One
EJRN 1000 Web Authoring
Students review basic HTML authoring and move on to intermediate HTML and various applications, such as WYSIWYG HTML editors (Dreamweaver), Photoshop, and image formats (GIF, JPEG). This fundamental course is required for more advanced applications.
EJRN 1001 E-Journalism
E-journalism is the next generation of news online. Using latest theory and emerging trends in journalism, this course provides students with a fundamental knowledge that will make them leaders in newsroom now and in the future. As new technologies push mainstream media in different directions, students will learn the theories behind journalism on the Internet, along with the latest technology and trends in presenting news and information in an evolving environment. This course explores various methods of providing news, non-linear reporting, online production theory, newsroom organization, and creating materials for online, as well as other topics. This course is essential for relationizing and understanding technology's role in journalism.
EJRN 1002 Online Publication Project 1
Students work on the online Pioneer, applying new skills directly in a digital newsroom environment by posting original stories, as well as content from other forms of campus media. Students will also work on a special project, facilitating more opportunities for creating original content.
EJRN 1004 The Business of Journalism 1
Course looks at how to run a freelance writing business. Topics include setting up a business, legal requirements, writing a business plan, securing a business loan, bookkeeping/accounting, tax laws, invoicing, bill collection and other related topics.
EJRN 1005 Multimedia Design
Students will be exposed to design theory for the web and its application to news and information web sites. Type, fonts, colour theory, proportion, navigation, and related topics will be covered to ensure proper aesthetics are applied when developing multimedia presentations or developing web sites.
EJRN 1011 Flash For E-Journalists
Students will learn fundamentals of Flash as it pertains to skills used by journalists in presenting news in an online environment. Students will use these skills to post stories, photojournalism, audio and video.
EJRN 1012 Multimedia Production
Students will explore the use of audio in presenting stories online. Using a mixture of audio, still photography, video and other media, students will be creating basic stories. This will go beyond simple shovel-up software systems, allowing customization necessary for serious journalists interested in controlling the narrative rather than having technology dictate constraints. Podcasts, videoblogs, along with multimedia and mixed media presentations will be reviewed in conjunction with the appropriate software. Students will create content by gathering, editing and presenting final stories for posting to an online news site.
Semester Two
EJRN 1007 The Art of Storytelling
Writing for the web is simple, yet complex. No longer are stories simply text, audio or video. Storytelling is the essence of this course. Looking at the various tools and technologies available to e-journalists, students will learn storytelling for online. Reviewing various storytelling methods used traditionally and in new media, e-journalists will learn how to apply both old and new techniques to the multimedia environment, applying the theoretical framework associated with e-journalism. Prerequisite: EJRN 1001
EJRN 1008 The Business of Journalism 2
This is a continuation of The Business of Journalism 1 with an emphasis on marketing, self-promotion and networking. Prerequisite: EJRN 1004
EJRN 1009 Online Publication Project 2
Emphasizes story-telling skills and allows students to demonstrate their mastery of digital technology. Students plan, research, and write a major story in their area of specialization for publication in traditional and online media, then present them in new and innovative ways. Prerequisite: EJRN 10021
EJRN 1013 Flash For E-Journalists 2
Students will build on skills learning more sophisticated ways of presenting text, audio, video, graphics, images and other media through the use of Flash software in preparation to present more complex stories and information.
EJRN 1014 Multimedia Presentation
Building on skills from across the curriculum, students will design and produce more complex stories in a more sophisticated manner. Students will learn techniques to present multimedia presentations, culminating in high quality multimedia presentations.
INTN 1001 Enhanced Internship
Students spend two months working in a newsroom or in a journalism-related job as approved by faculty.
