Former journos introduce citizen journalism course in Mumbai

A non-profit body initiated by two former journalists has conceptualised India's first teaching programme in Citizen Journalism, a two-month ten-session module will begin on August 1 in Mumbai.

Former journalists Shishir Joshi and Aloke Thakore have designed the course as a weekend programme every Saturday for ten weeks and will conduct the same in suburban Mumbai.

Joshi told PTI that the aim of the course was to empower citizens. The minimum requirement is basic language skills in any Indian language. "Age is not a bar and 15 students would be admitted in each batch," he said.

Experts in the field of policing, law, civic issues, right to information would be engaged in the teaching programme.

Some key areas of teaching include citizen journalism backgrounder and how it is practiced globally, basics of reporting, news gathering, ethics including accuracy and fairness, laws and use of technology in citizen journalism.

Joshi said every student will be provided an email id and their work would be put up on a portal dedicated to citizen journalism called "citizensreport.in".

He said the need for citizens as journalists is being increasingly felt in present times to cover issues from a wide spectrum of society which media companies cannot commit enough resources to cover.

"We are launching the citizen journalism programme in Mumbai and will be taking it to empower citizens to various cities across India," Joshi said.