Shalom Corps in partnership with the NYU Bronfman’s Institute for Impact and Intrapreneurship is pleased to announce that February 23rd, began a long-anticipated course on Activist Journalism. This course offers its participants training sessions, and practical tools in theoretical journalism in order to help our partners around the world document their volunteering activities. During their participation in the course, they will learn how to advance their organization’s messages and missions both off and online. Through many renowned experts who have come to guest lecture and their interactive workshops within the course, participants are exposed to various new and innovative methods of marketing, rebranding, journalism, strategies and so much more so that they can be on their way to becoming most efficient when it comes to achieving their goals.
This Activist Journalism Certification aims to help various organizations enhance their impact within their community and across the world in the most professional and efficient way possible. During our first session the course was hosted by Yaakov Katz, Editor in Chief of The Jerusalem Post. Katz has served for almost a decade as the Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. Previously lecturing a course on advanced journalism at Harvard University and serving as a policy advisor to Israel’s Minister of Economy and Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Yaakov Katz, has graciously offered his insight into the world of journalism and reporting, what makes a good story and how to captivate an audience. We learned that some of the fundamental principles are innate curiosity, the ability to make human connections and build relationships with one another across borders because in the age of technology everyone has the ability to tell a story. Therefore, it is important to hook your audience and stand out in a way that captivates your readers to continue to your story’s next chapters. We analyzed what “news” actually is and how this definition helps dictate our stories, because real news goes beyond a simple description of fact or event, it is in fact based on what interests’ people the most.
Our course’s next session took place Tuesday, March 9th, and focused on the “Timeless Art of Storytelling.” We were joined by Linda Scherer, the Director of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metro-west NJ. She is the former Mideast correspondent for CNN and Israel Television. She holds vast experience in reporting on the Israel Arab Conflict and since 2002 been the Director of the “Write On For Israel/NY” program, teaching high school students to be proactive in the pro-Israel community during college. We look forward to sharing what we learn from her.
