The Chisinau School of Advanced Journalism, operated by the Independent Journalism Center, has recently announced the new admission campaign for the 2016/2017 academic year.
For the 11th time the graduates of all Moldovan universities are invited to apply, regardless of their academic or professional background. They will discover, during ten months of this non-degree program, how media in general and journalism in particular work, and finally they will become journalists themselves.
For more than ten years, the Chisinau School of Advanced Journalism (CSAJ) has been the Independent Journalism Center’s (IJC) leading project. Owing to CSAJ, the IJC succeeded in reaffirming its role as a leading media training NGO in the country.
Launched in September 2006, in cooperation with the Missouri School of Journalism (USA) and the Center of Professional Training of Journalists in Paris (France), the School was conceived based on advanced postgraduate programs for journalists and created according to the highest international standards in journalism practiced in Europe and the USA.
CSAJ courses last ten months and are taught by the most qualified and experienced journalists, both Moldovan and those from abroad. The students are introduced to television, radio, print and online journalism. They are also provided with technical equipment needed for obtaining skills in filming; editing, photographing.
The main courses include News Writing, Radio/TV Journalism, Media Law and Ethics, Online Journalism, Economic and Business Journalism, Photojournalism, Investigative Journalism, Media Management etc.
Experts in economics, media law, psychology, management and journalism ethics teach the students to analyze various aspects of journalism – whether it is children’s rights in the media, knowledge of legal provisions on defamation or understanding the difference between real economic reforms and ordinary populism.
The courses end with a public presentation of the students’ final pieces of work, followed by four-week internship at the School’s partner institutions: Pro TV, Ziarul de Gardă, Realitatea, Radio Free Europe etc. It is common that some graduates get employed by these outlets at the end of the internship.
From the very beginning, CSAJ’s goals were to educate a new generation of ethical journalists with diverse technical skills – so-called “universal journalists”. This is done by putting emphasis on hands-on work, under the principle “teaching hands-on journalism in conditions close to real life newsrooms”, and by keeping students up-to-date with the latest changes in the information society.
To this end, CSAJ has always done its best to offer basic journalism knowledge for young journalists or for those who want to start a professional career in this sector. That is highly important, especially when students had no link with journalism in the past. The students of the 2015/2016 academic year have graduated in law, foreign languages and literature, history and psychology, IT, international relations, economic and administrative sciences, agronomy, journalism and communication, theatre and arts.
Despite this diversity of backgrounds, since 2006, some 130 CSAJ’s alumni have entered the field of Moldovan media (80%), public relations (5%), media NGOs (10%) or continued their education abroad in pursuit of advanced degrees (5%).
Our students are gladly hired by the leading media outlets – e.g. 8 of 12 (67%) of the last year graduates are already practicing journalism professionally. This figure proves that CSAJ manages to achieve its main goal: new generations of journalists capable of building professional, free and independent media environment and consequently a better informed public.
Media organizations continuously recognize CSAJ’s work and thus CSAJ’s graduates are among the winners of various contests, such as as the “Top 10 Journalists of the Year”.
All those activities would not be possible without the generous support of the CSAJ’s donors. In the last three years the financial support for the School has been provided by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the National Endowment for Democracy.
For more details, see the CSAJ webpage – http://scoaladejurnalism.md.