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Lawrence Lessig has posted a review of David Halperin's recent book, Digital Barbarism.
Halperin, who authored the (in)famous New York Times article calling for perpetual copyright, has now compiled his ideas into a book. Lessig offers a much-needed critique, including citing misconceptions about Creative Commons (Halperin conflates it not only with "freeware" with software... more
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Jo's Toolkit: a student journalist's recipe for success
Daniela Faris · Johannesburg (South Africa) · Sep 29th, 2006 4:12 pm · 20 votes · no comments made
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| Carly and Gregor holding the Highway Africa Award, by Paul Greenway |
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Bring together student journalists, media studies lecturers, editors of major South African magazines and online newspapers. Add their collective, yet varied experiences from practising in the field of media. Mix in a touch of good advice and helpful hints. Stir in a pinch of passion for the profession. Attach a Creative Commons (CC) license ' and viola - you have Jo's Toolkit, a website which provides resources and tools for journalism students and grassroots/media practitioners in the fields of writing, editing, design, photography, television, radio and new media.
"Jo's Toolkit came about in the hope of educating other journalists. We have access to lecturers, students and professionals with a wealth of experience and media knowledge and we wanted to pool these resources and make them available to others," says Jo's Toolkit founders and editors, Rhodes University journalism students Carly Ritz and Gregor Rohrig.
And access these resources, they certainly did. The site hosts articles from South African Mail and Guardian Online editor Matthew Buckland, Student Life managing editor, James Simpson and Seventeen magazine editor Justine Stafford and more.
As a trained journalist myself, browsing through the pages of Jo's Toolkit, I couldn't help but be inspired by the wealth of resources collected in one handy website' from links to sites with information on reporting sensitively on HIV/Aids, to an inspiring article giving a voice to student journalists, and their hopes for affecting change in the field of media in the future.
This excellence has already won them acclaim barely four months since the website's launch, Jo's Toolkit won the Highway Africa Award for Innovative Use of New Media in Africa.
"Before leaving this institution we wanted to create an environment which could empower student media, and general student practitioners," the editors said, "There has been a lack of communication between student or grassroot media practitioners and academics and professionals. The idea was to bridge this gap and allow for free and effective dialogue."
As a result, lecturers from Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies have made their lecture notes available on this site all under Creative Commons license.
"All our contributors are made aware of the CC license. They see the potential of this project and are very enthusiastic and motivated to aid the cause we are trying to achieve and thus have not declined having their work licensed under CC," they said.
Gregor and Carly chose the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 South Africa license for the site because "we thought this was the fairest and most effective licence for a project like this one."
The two forward-thinkers are specialising in New Media, and are completing their studies at the end of this year. But what will become of Jo's Toolkit?
"We would like to continue running Jo's Toolkit and will be appointing a student editor next year who would be the contact keeping in touch with the student community. We want to keep Jo established in a tertiary educative system."
So what do you get when you take a passionate freelance photographer and backgammon enthusiast and a Tarantino fan and ex-student newspaper editor? A get-up-and go team and a sure recipe for success. I'll certainly be referring to the handy hints on Jo's Toolkit in the future, you should check it out too!
tags: grahamstown south africa education journalism toolkit students grassroots-media
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