Journalism and Civil Resistance is the 2010 school theme. Instructors include internationally respected community organizers and leaders Mercedes Osuna of Mexico, Oscar Olivera of Bolivia, Telesur’s Lourdes Zuazo from Venezuela, Celeo Alvarez Casildo of Honduras and many others. The School is impressive and needs your help.

My Word is My Weapon says this bilingual grassroots journalism training program needs equipment donations. The non-profit organization needs a few things in particular:

* Video Cameras. Any Mini-DV or DV camera, or Flip Cam. (HD cameras can also be put to good use.)
* Laptops. Especially Macintosh laptops in working order, from the G4, G5, MacBook or MacBook Pro series. PCs are also needed.
* Digital Cameras. Any digital camera in working order is needed.
* Tripods. Any tripod for video cameras, in working order.
* External Hard Drives. Macintosh compatible external hard drive of 50 GBs or more, that is no more than four years old, and with a Firewire or USB 2.0 port, is needed.

The Fund will be happy to provide you with a letter that documents the value of your donation, for tax purposes.

“Latin America today lives an age of hope with leaders and projects that have bet on a different path than that which for centuries despaired so many millions of anonymous souls via the front pages of newspapers,” wrote Maylin Alonso Chiong recently in support of the program. “This is the moment to change history.”

.Reference resource: Click Here.

The changing media landscape coupled with the economic downturn has forced the recent closure of longtime newspapers such as The Rocky Mountain News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Even TIME offered its predictions on the top 10 major newspapers that will fold or go digital this year including the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe.

With so many of our nation’s newspapers fighting to stay alive, many are evaluating strategies to update their medium and make it relevant for today’s consumer.

According to an article in Advertising Age, “The nation’s print media may be on life support, but some are quietly building digital portfolios again – albeit on a smaller scale – and some are starting to bear fruit. We’re not talking about the digital editions of papers themselves, but startups that take old media in new directions.” For instance, Gannett Co. Inc., a leading international news and information company which publishes 85 daily newspapers, including USA TODAY, has been busy building strategic relationships with startup companies to shift its business model and become a leader in the digital media market.

One of Gannett’s portfolio companies includes Pointroll, which powers innovative rich-media display ads on the web. Pointroll’s CEO Jason Tafler said, “The ultimate goal is to transform Gannett into a real digital leader by leveraging the strength of content and the audience that it has and extending that into the digital world.”

.Reference resource: Click Here.