About

This blog is supplemental to a graduate course in journalism: Journalists’ Toolkit.

This course is taught at the University of Florida in the College of Journalism and Communications. It is open to master’s degree candidates enrolled in this college. The prerequisite is reporting experience.

You will find this course listed under Mass Communication with the course number MMC 6936.

This course is offered in the 2007-2008 academic year. It might never be offered again due to budgetary constraints that prevent the college from offering a professional master’s degree program in journalism.

This course prepares the student to work as a journalist in today’s newsrooms where the online and digital platforms are at least as important as the traditional print or broadcast platforms. It constitutes a two-semester sequence, with Toolkit 1 being a prerequisite for Toolkit 2. In Toolkit 1, students learn audio for online media, photojournalism, audio slideshows, and blogging. In Toolkit 2, students learn video shooting and editing and get a basic introduction to Flash.

Both courses emphasize journalistic storytelling techniques more than technology and software.

The author of this blog is Mindy McAdams. I have a more comprehensive blog called Teaching Online Journalism.