The MC Online editorial board is interested in new associates. We invite journalists, editors, media researchers, analysts and other media professionals to contact us with their ideas and suggestions at redakcija@media.ba.

The MC Online portal publishes educational and informative articles, analyses and news intended for journalists, editors, media trainers and educators, journalism students and everyone else interested in training in the fields of journalism, media management and production, as well as media researchers, analysts and other media professionals who would like to get information on the most recent events in the media sphere in the former Yugoslavia and South East Europe.

Content and type of articles:

We advise authors interested in writing for MC Online to send the newsroom a concept with the main ideas, basic structure of the article and suggested sources. The article should fall into one of the following categories:

1) Educational article for the section “NetNovinar” (average length of article 1,800 – 2,200 words; shorter articles up to 1,500 words) aimed at editors/journalists/students/media managers/media trainers on one of the following topics or combination of topics:

- Techniques/forms in journalism;
- Investigative reporting;
- Journalism in print media, radio/TV/online journalism;
- Use of computers, Internet and new technologies in general for the purpose of news stories and work in media;
- Radio/TV production, film production;
- Media legislation/regulations;
- Media management;
- Or specialized reporting on issues such as: war crimes, security issues, social environment (authors may also suggest other topics for educational articles dealing with specialized reporting).

Emphasis is on examples from practice, either the author’s or colleagues’ (with their permission to give their examples).

2) The story of a story for the section “NetNovinar” (average length 1,800 – 2,200 words; shorter articles up to 1,500 words):

In the section “Investigative Reporting” and other NetNovinar sections, we often bring articles on successful stories by journalists from the region of South East Europe. The purpose of such stories is to explain methods that journalists used for example to collect data and approach sources, as well as to describe special skills and tools and other aspects of work on a story that colleagues/readers of the MediaOnline portal could find useful in their own work, to recommend techniques, tools and sources, to help them avoid mistakes and problems, and to give recommendations on how to efficiently deal with certain steps while working on stories.

3) Analysis for the sections “NetNovinar” or “Research” (short analysis 1,800 – 2,200 words; longer analysis 2,500 – 3,000 words): Analyses deal with the role and development of media, media policy, regulations and ethics in countries of the former Yugoslavia and the broader region of South East Europe, development of media literacy, current issues or problems faced by media professionals, as well as problems in media reporting. They are heavily based on analytical examination of facts, not just opinions and views of their authors. Sources must be cited.

4) Recommendation (average length up to 250 words): Brief recommendations of publications, websites, organizations or films that media professionals in the region might find interesting. Recommendations should provide basic information about the website, publication, organization or film that is being recommended (example of recommendation of a publication – author of the publication; name of the publisher; year published; link to the publication in PDF format if available; information on the author…), with an explanation why it is recommended and why media professionals might find it useful.

5) Commentary (average length 500 words): The author expresses his/her opinion on a current issue or question in the media sphere on a topic previously agreed with the editorial board. Some of these topics may be: disrespect of journalists’ rights; arrests of or threats to journalists; disrespect of human rights in media reports; media freedom and censorship; as well as practical issues related to everyday reporting/work in media. The author gives the opinion from the perspective of his/her professional angle. The commentary should ideally throw a different light on a particular issue/question.

The author will agree on the topic, length and format of the article in detail with the editorial board.

Authors should bear in mind that the MC Online portal addresses a regional audience that may not be familiar with local issues/problems/events. Articles must contain explanations of terms, names and cases, and also examples that audiences from other countries in the region are not necessarily aware of. Articles should be easy to understand not just for the specific professional audience, but also for the public at large.

Cooperation with the editorial board:

Each article posted on MC Online will go through intense copy-editing. If necessary, the editorial board will send its questions/comments to the author and ask the author to make changes in the article. The article may have to be amended several times. Authors must be willing to cooperate actively with the editorial board. The editorial board will acknowledge the author’s views expressed in the article. Authors must be willing to harmonize articles with the MC Online editorial concept and interests of the audience.

Format:

The author should send the article to the editorial board in Word format.

The font is Verdana 10; single spacing, left alignment, without indentation or indenting the first row of the paragraph with spaces or tabs.

Authors are advised to suggest how the article should be presented: title (no more than 42 characters with spaces) and article summary (no more than 200 characters with spaces).

Only endnotes (footnotes at the end of the article) are used, while classical footnotes at the bottom of the page are not used. Use of endnotes should be reduced to a minimum.

Authors should provide links directing readers to contents on the Internet – for example websites of relevant organizations or publications, laws, etc – which the article mentions.
Where possible, authors should provide the full URL (link to the specific web page or document), instead of home page of a particular website.

Along with the article, the author should send a short biography (up to 300 words) which will, with consent of the editorial board, be published on MC Online.

The article should be accompanied by a list of relevant sources/publications/organizations (a list of links to sources is desirable), which will serve users as an additional source of information about the topic of the article.

Copyrights:

MC Online reserves all rights to published contents, including any subsequent publishing in all print and electronic formats. Authors who publish their works on Mediacentar Online undertake not to publish these works in other media without prior notification and written approval from Mediacentar Sarajevo. All articles subsequently published in other media and publications, upon receiving the MC Online editorial board’s approval, should contain a precise reference to MC Online – information that the article was first published on MC Online and a link to www.media.ba and the article.

Note:

The author will agree with the editorial board on a fee for the article, which depends on the length and type of article, complexity of work on the article and research required for the article. Only articles first published on MC Online will be paid, regardless of whether the author offered them or the editorial board ordered them from the author. Articles previously published in other publications and articles that are not published due to non-compliance with the editorial requirements will not be paid.