YaLa Academy’s Aileen Getty School of Citizen Journalism 2018 for Middle Eastern & African youth

The YaLa Academy’s Aileen Getty School of Citizen Journalism, in partnership with the European Union Peacebuilding Initiative, invites you to undergo a FREE 4-month online training program (starting September 2018) featuring journalists and new media experts from the New York Times, the Associated Press, Facebook & more! The program will be held in English and participants must come from, or live in, Israel, Palestine or another country in the Middle East or North Africa, and be between the ages of 17 and 36. The program is free and takes place online.

It’s time to make your voice heard! Today’s internet allows the voices of civil societies to be heard globally – a power once reserved for only the largest media and news corporations – we must make the best of this opportunity and use it to build bridges for a better, more peaceful future.

The program will train you to become a “citizen journalists” experienced in expressing yourself, telling your stories, writing blogs, taking photos, making videos, using new & social media tools and engaging in cross-border dialogue. The online training program focuses on video lectures by peace practitioners and journalists/experts such as Alan Abbey, founder of Ynetnews; Rina Castelnuovo, photojournalist for the New York Times; Joe Federman, Editor of the Jerusalem Bureau of the Associated Press; John Temple, former Managing Editor of The Washington Post; David Fischer, Vice President of Facebook, and many more!

During the 4-month program, you will be asked to take part in online chat sessions about the video lectures (every other week), to participate in a private Facebook working group where the 4 mandatory assignments are posted and reviewed, and to regularly check your emails. You will be in touch with a Coordinator who will help you work on your assignments and go through the training. Throughout the program, you will learn how to create written and audio-visual content about the issues important to you – such as peace, gender, identity, culture, social justice, coexistence, etc.

Structure: