Wednesday, October 28, 2009

The Third Day of Our Workshop




The third day of our workshop got more interesting and constructive. The day begun with a recap of a previous day. After then our facilitator Mr. Peik Johansson appreciated what the participants have posted (on their respective blogs) as their views on the proceedings of our workshop. He commended on their sincerity and opinion.

After those openning remarks, we looked at the idea of internet in everyday Journalism. It was observed that the internet has multiplied the potential sources of news. From here the workshop managed to view so many websites which are potential sources of journalistic information. Some among them includes websites of local and international media houses, news agencies, IPS news, african journal online, hiiran online, african studies internet resources, allafrica.com, africa literature and writers, african union, website of the government of Tanzania, tanzanian parliament, amnesty international, author.com, hello in more than 800 languages, etc.

Also we got time to discuss the use of email for journalistic purposes. These include the communication a journalist can with the editor before sending a story or an article. Also email interviews and information attachments. We were als able to visit about.com and learn how it help us more in the use of internet.

After then we had a discussion on Journalistic research via internet. Here we were guided on the better tactics of getting online information quickly; especially through the use of google search engine; the specificity is needed when typing a name or topic on the search engine. Moreover accuracy on the type of website one use to get the information. Some websites are not proper authorities in getting such information. There is a need to be keen in using online information. We need to strive getting information from website of relevant authorities.

This event was later followed by an exercise (which was done by all participants) on quick search of online information. the facilitator told us to quickly search for capital cities of coutries like Burkina Faso, Laos and Honduras. Also the population of places like Egypt, Finland and Ruvuma. Also presidents of countries like Namibia and Bolivia.

Essentially this was done to see how participants can be able to quickly get such information, with a particular concern on the words/topics used to search for the information and the authenticity of the information found.

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