The Harmony Centre’s new curriculum for conducting Advanced Certificate in Media Literacy and Journalism (ACMLJ), a six-month program in Tamil and Sinhala, is approved by the University Council and planned to successfully commence. The curriculum development committee of the Harmony Centre prepared the curriculum for 15 credits according to the SLQF standards for Level two.
It was observed that the courses identified are having enormous potential and merits not only to enhance critical thinking, creativity, practical competencies to produce a positive peace narrative but also to seek employment opportunities in the growing digital media market.
The proposed certificate course aims at providing a greater learning opportunity for the young budding journalists, journalists that are already working for established media, potential future journalists, and digital media enthusiasts in widening their professional competency in fundamentals of digital media consumption. The certificate course will provide a holistic understanding on wide range of subjects such as how media working in the convergence setting, globally accepted media standards, media ownership, digital media and radicalization, media dealing with hate speech, media ethics, critical consumption techniques, digital media applications, emerging complex nature of media landscape, information falsehood, verification skills, identifying all forms of disinformation, basics of news literacy, agenda setting, and media, bias, etc. Increasing media polarization and information falsehood required journalists that are operating their professional in a responsible manner with sense of responsiveness and greater accountability.
This course will support to improve the relevant knowledge and skills and providing training for the journalists and civil society members for enhanced career opportunities, accessibility to greater learning opportunity and professionalism. A detailed description of the curriculum and examination structure for the certificate course are in the Website of the Harmony Centre.
The Harmony Centre, University of Vavuniya invites applications to select suitably qualified individuals for the two courses, (1) Advanced Certificate in Media Literacy and Journalism (ACMLJ), a six-month program in Tamil medium and (2) the Advanced Certificate in Media Literacy and Journalism (ACMLJ), a six-month program in Sinhala medium (SLQF Level Two) during weekends and holidays.