Media Literacy and Technology: Internet Resources

The American Press Institute advances an innovative and sustainable news industry by helping publishers understand and engage audiences, grow revenue, improve public-service journalism, and succeed at organizational change.

IJEC shares the research and resources produced by university faculty and students. The consortium also encourages and highlights collaborative projects among educators, students and journalists in nonprofit newsrooms.

Better News offers strategies and case studies to help transform newsrooms.

Advocates ethical and thorough reporting of trauma; compassionate, professional treatment of victims and survivors by journalists; and greater awareness by media organizations of the impact of trauma coverage on both news professionals and news consumers.

The IWMF works to unleash the power of female journalists to transform the global news media. We are the only organization that provides safety training, byline opportunities, and emergency support tailored to female journalists and photographers around the world.

In this TEDTalk, James Surowiecki addresses those questions by pinpointing the moment in which social media became an equal player in the world of news-gathering. Surowiecki—a New Yorker finance writer and the author of The Wisdom of Crowds—examines the 2005 tsunami disaster, when YouTube, blogs, and texting emerged as the most effective methods for conveying global events.

At TEDxABQ, reporter Megan Kamerick shows how the news media underrepresents women as reporters and news sources—and because of that tells an incomplete story.

Computer scientist Jennifer Golbeck explains how this came about, how some applications of the technology are not so cute—and why she thinks we should return the control of information to its rightful owners.

Doesn't it seem like a lot of online news sites have moved beyond reporting the news to openly inciting your outrage (and your page views)? News analyst Sally Kohn suggests—don't engage with news that looks like it just wants to make you mad. Instead, give your precious clicks to the news sites you truly trust.

We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information.

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. It is free software, you can change its source code and distribute your changes.

Krita features brush stabilizers for shaky hands and allows you to customize your brushes with over nine unique brush engines for specific needs. You can import brush and texture packs from other artists to expand your tool set. You can also customize Krita’s intuitive user interface with your own dockers, panels and shortcuts.

This web based image editor comes with standard graphic design tools such as different brushes, shapes, and cloning tools. The interface was designed with Photoshop in mind and offers and intuitive floating toolbar. You can upload documents from your computer to edit them online with this tool.
Sumo Paint is free as an online image editor that requires Adobe Flash Player.

Inkscape is a sophisticated high quality vector graphics software which allows you to create a great variety of graphics: illustrations, logos, diagrams, maps, flyers, posters and many more. It comes with extensive drawing tools just as capable as those of Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW or Xara Xtreme

. Vectr is capable to design any 2D graphic for all sorts of print products such as business cards, posters, flyers, brochures and more. The software is available as a standalone desktop app or as an online version and features cross-platform live collaboration and synchronization, allowing you to work on the same project with others.

CMYK colors, spot colors and ICC profiles are part of the robust and reliable color management in Scribus which lets you control color display and conversion. The neat features include vector drawing tools, import and export for many file types, or emulation of color blindness to check your color choices. For going to print, Scribus offers reliable and professional PDF creation with a wide range of PDF export options.

The pack includes several applications, out of which Draw will prove useful for creating vector graphics and flowcharts. You can easily insert graphics and diagrams, and the tool is a good choice for technical drawings, brochures, posters and other straightforward print products. Draw includes the means to manipulate pictures and images in many ways and is able to handle an impressive range of image and document formats, including high quality PDF export for print. For improving your design, templates are available for download.

Creates page layouts or vector illustrations, edit photos, or create 3D text and logos. It already comes with nearly a thousand built-in fonts and endless vector cliparts for you to use and on which to base your design. A popular feature is the possibility to create stunning 3D text graphics by inputting text and choosing a 3D template. Basic photo editing is certainly no problem for Fatpaint, but advanced photo editing, vector drawing or working with multiple layers or pages are definitely the strong points of the application, making it a powerful DTP tool. Ad-based in free form.

Canva includes stock photography, vector art and illustrations for you to use, or you can upload your own. It is possible to edit your photos with preset filters or advanced photo editing tools. Enhance your design with icons, shapes and elements and choose among hundreds of available fonts.
Canva and its basic features are free while advanced and enterprise features are available as subscription models.

Free Digital Media for Educational Use

Free stock photo resources

The National Association of Media & Technology Centers (NAMTC) is an organization committed to promoting leadership among its membership through networking, advocacy, and support activities that will enhance the equitable access to media, technology, and information services to educational communities. Membership is open to regional, K-12, and higher education media technology centers, as well as commercial technology and media vendors.

The Software & Information Industry Association is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides global services in government relations, business development, corporate education and intellectual property protection to the leading companies that are setting the pace for the digital age.

We help facilitate consumers’ access to legal digital media choices.

They provide an infrastructure of services and facilities to encourage discussion and collaboration across the whole BaM supply chain.

Do you want to learn to tell stories with video, find out how to conduct computer-assisted investigations or become a backpack journalist? Check out IJNet's videos on these topics and more.

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute works with citizens, journalists and researchers to strengthen democracy through better journalism. RJI seeks out the most exciting new ideas, tests them with real-world experiments, uses social science research to assess their effectiveness and delivers solutions that citizens and journalists can put to use in their own communities.

The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is an international association of nonprofit organizations that support, promote, and produce investigative journalism. GIJN holds conferences, conducts trainings, provides resources and a Help Desk, and encourages the creation of similar nonprofit groups.

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.

ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Online creative suite that works in your web browser and mobile device, without any plugins.