Bring together student journalists, media studies lecturers, editors of major South African magazines and online newspapers. Add their collective, yet varied experiences from practising in the field of media. Mix in a touch of good advice and helpful hints. Stir in a pinch of passion for the profession. Attach a Creative Commons (CC) licence – and viola – you have Jo’s Toolkit, a recently launched website which provides resources and tools for journalism students and grassroots/media practitioners in the fields of writing, editing, design, photography, television, radio and new media.
“Jo’s Toolkit came about in the hope of educating other journalists. We have access to lecturers, students and professionals with a wealth of experience and media knowledge and we wanted to pool these resources and make them available to others,” says Jo’s Toolkit founders and editors, Rhodes University journalism students Carly Ritz and Gregor Rohrig.
And access these resources, they certainly did. The site hosts articles from South African Mail and Guardian Online editor Matthew Buckland, Student Life managing editor, James Simpson and Seventeen magazine editor Justine Stafford and more.
This excellence has already won them acclaim – barely four months since the website’s launch, Jo’s Toolkit won the Highway Africa Award for Innovative Use of New Media in Africa.
“Before leaving this institution we wanted to create an environment which could empower student media, and general student practitioners,” the editors said, “There has been a lack of communication between student or grassroot media practitioners and academics and professionals. The idea was to bridge this gap and allow for free and effective dialogue.”
As a result, lecturers from Rhodes University’s School of Journalism and Media Studies have made their lecture notes available on this site – all under Creative Commons license.
“All our contributors are made aware of the CC licence. They see the potential of this project and are very enthusiastic and motivated to aid the cause we are trying to achieve and thus have not declined having their work licensed uncer CC,” they said.
Gregor and Carly chose the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 South Africa licence for the site because “we thought this was the fairest and most effective licence for a project like this one.”
Written by Daniela Faris, for the icommons.org website, http://www.icommons.org
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