The Internet has radically revolutionized the public space, including mass media. More and more people choose to seek information in cyberspace due to its promptness and usually free access to online resources. It happens, however, that online journalism requires special abilities from those who practice it. SAJ students learned how to write for the Internet and what are multimedia elements for online journalism at the first course of the second semester – Online Journalism.

In the first part of the course students learned about the special features of online journalism that make it different from other media. Guided by trainer Liliana Barbarosie, future journalists for four days studied the “secrets” of an online article and how to structure it so as to make it more attractive for readers. Then, students produced two journalistic materials for the Internet.

The second part of the course was mostly focused on technical elements. For five days, journalist Tatiana Etco taught students to use multimedia tools in online journalism. They learned what a hyperlink is and how it works, what role it plays and how it can be created. Also, through various practical examples, young people learned the difference between a simple slideshow and one accompanied by audio.

At the end of the course, future journalists produced an online material each, in which they used different multimedia tools: link, hyperlink, timeline, ThingLink and slideshow. Students were extremely intrigued by the things they learned in the course. “We want more practical exercised,” Petru Garciu said. In her turn, trainer Tatiana Etco said they could seek inspiration by following the outlets that produce multimedia products, but they should also not forget that a journalist should be original.

This module is a continuation of other courses where elements of online journalism were studied, as well, such as photojournalism, visual journalism, news and reporting.