Each week, MediaShift will list upcoming online trainings and courses for journalists and media people — with a focus on digital training. We’ll include our new DigitalEd courses, as well as those from Mediabistro, NewsU, KDMC, and others. If we’re missing anything, please let us know at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org.
FEATURED TRAINING
DigitalEd: Social Media Strategy and Analytics
You’re using social media, but you know you could use it better. This training will show you how to develop a social media strategy and monitor its effectiveness using analytics, starting with identifying the right strategies for your business or personal brand and how to set up experiments to test your target audience. You’ll also learn how to use some of the deeper functions and nuances of the popular social media platforms to make your posts and efforts more effective. We’ll also cover how to use social media management apps, easy ways to stay up-to-date on your favorite social platforms, and how to use attention to detail in your posts can amplify your presence and measure your success.
Date and time: Dec. 2, 2015, 1pm ET
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: online
Price: $39
DECEMBER 2015
Social Video Crash Course
Established social apps have also realised the power of video and are now putting new video features front-and-centre. There really is no stopping the advance of video into our lives. But with this new plethora of options comes some confusion for those looking to make use of video in their social media approach. Why would you use Vine over Instagram? Is Snapchat really a valid tool or is it “just for kids”? How should you approach livestreaming via Periscope or Meerkat? This full-day crash course will aim to answer all these questions and more in a fun day, packed full of tips, demos and practical, hands-on exercises.
Date and time: Dec. 2, 2015, 10am – 5pm
Producer: Journalism.co.uk
Place: MSN UK, Cardinal Place, 100 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5JL
Price: £240 (inc. VAT)
Social Media Content Strategies
This one-day workshop, led by former BBC journalist Sue Llewellyn, is designed to help you understand what works – and what doesn’t – in social media. It will help you to understand the psychology of social media, what makes people click and share and really empower you to get your content strategy buzzing.
Date and time: Dec. 2, 2015, 10am – 5pm
Producer: Journalism.co.uk
Place: MSN UK, 100 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 5JX
Price: £240 (inc. VAT)
DigitalEd: Learn to Code with WordPress
This training will introduce the fundamentals of building your own website on WordPress, how to run a blog, and how to design and publish digital elements to complement and enhance your stories. We will learn the basics of HTML and CSS as they pertain to WordPress and how to add plugins and use themes.
Date and time: Dec. 11, 2015, 10am PT
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: online
Price: $39
Livestreaming the News: Replacing the Satellite Truck With a Cellphone
Livestreaming, once restricted to TV stations with expensive satellite trucks, is now affordable, accessible and relatively easy to produce. In a pinch, all you need is a reporter with a smartphone to go live on most any website. And for a more professional look, a consumer-grade video camera and about $300 in additional equipment is all you need for an HD stream. Whether you’re covering breaking news in the field or planned live events like press conferences or town hall meetings, livestreaming is a great way to add video and boost user engagement on your site and social channels. Both on the technology side and the reporting side, there are best practices for everyone who will wield a cellphone and broadcast directly to a site. This Webinar will show you how to go from no livestream to an easy livestream on your site, or help you strengthen your site’s livestreaming capabilities if you have started to experiment.
Date and time: Dec. 9, 2015, 2pm ET
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Place: online
Price: $29.95
Copy Editing Basics, In-Person
Learn copy editing skills from BuzzFeed’s copy chief and increase your chances of getting freelance work. This course is for anyone who wants to break into copy editing or feel more confident wrangling words. We’ll cover the basics, from understanding copy editing marks to avoiding rookie grammar mistakes. You’ll have the tools needed to enter the field and an understanding of how to create smooth, readable copy. And you’ll have another skill you can add to your resume and put into action.
Date and time: Dec. 12, 2015, 1pm ET
Producer: Mediabistro
Place: One Worldwide Plaza, 825 8th Avenue, 29th Floor, New York, NY (Enter at back of building-near courtyard-between 49th and 50th)
Price: $275
With the newly released Ferrite iPhone app, users have the only tool they need to record, edit, and transmit professional-quality audio reports, features, and podcasts. Ferrite Recording Studio is the first multi-track audio editing app designed for journalists in five years — an eternity in today’s quickly-changing digital news environment. Award-winning reporter and mobile journalism trainer Neal Augenstein — a beta tester before the app’s release — will offer step-by-step instruction and best practices for this new field reporting tool for the iPhone. This training will show how to record interviews and reporter tracks and how to select, finely edit, and rearrange soundbites. You’ll also learn how to bring listeners to the scene with natural and ambient sound, and how to share content with a newsroom or the world.
Date and time: Dec. 16, 2015 at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: online
Price: $39
JANUARY 2016
Social Media Analytics
This class, designed for marketers, bloggers, community managers, and anyone wanting to learn the ins and outs of social media measurement, will show you how to set up tools to measure your social media activity and make sense of the data you collect. You’ll learn how to sift through web analytics, Facebook Insights, and Twitter mentions in order to develop a comprehensive reporting and tracking system. We’ll look at free and paid tools so no matter what your budget, you will have a strategy to measure results.
Date and time: January 5-26, 2016
Producer: Mediabistro
Place: online
Price: $385
Facebook Marketing
Apply Facebook tactics proven to build a fan base and grow your business. This course covers best practices to successfully navigate the multitude of marketing capabilities Facebook offers and will enable you to identify and leverage those that are most important for your brand to succeed.
Date and time: January 6-27, 2016
Producer: Mediabistro
Place: online
Price: $385
Data Visualization for Storytellers
Data Visualization for Storytellers is a two-day, hands-on certificate program focused on communicating complex information with visually appealing charts, graphs and maps. Participants will learn to create a clearer, more meaningful picture of complex information and publicly available data, tell stories with interactive maps, and create beautiful and effective graphs and charts. The program is ideal for people interested in a rapid-paced, immersive experience in data visualization tools and techniques. This workshop is ideal for scientists, communication professionals, journalists, bloggers, educators and those interested in becoming proficient in learning to communicate data with clarity and creativity.
Date and time: January 7-8, 2016, 8:30-4pm daily
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price:$795 USD Early Registration Discount for registrations before December 10, 2015. Discount automatically applied.
Podcasting: Telling Stories in Sound
In this two-day certificate earning course, Podcasting: Telling Stories in Sound, you’ll learn the art of creating and producing distinctive audio podcasts. You’ll practice hands-on recording and editing to develop your own podcast with direction from award winning radio journalist and podcaster, Ben Manilla.
Date and time: January 7-8, 2016, 8:30-4pm daily
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $755 USD Early Registration Discount for registrations before December 10, 2015. Discount automatically applied.
Visual Storytelling
A one-week workshop with seminar style and hands-on training in essential skills for producing visual content to a digital-first media environment.
Date and time: January 11-16, 2016, Monday through Friday, 9:00 am- 5:00 pm daily. Morning coffee and networking lunch is included.
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $2,400 USD, Register Early for 10% discount. Discount immediately applied at registration.
Social Media for Content Creators: Brand Building, Content Strategy, Audience Engagement
As savvy communication professionals we understand the value of social media, yet few organizations or companies have developed a comprehensive content strategy across multiple platforms. The constant influx of new communities, platforms and ways to connect can overwhelm even the most accomplished social media manager. In this three-day certificate workshop we’ll provide you with the knowledge, tools and techniques to structure a strategy that coordinates branding, engaging content and tactics across social media platforms.
Date and time: January 12-14, 2016, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am- 4:30 pm daily.
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $1,450 USD, Register Early for 10% discount. Discount immediately applied at registration.
Mobile Media: Producing Visual Stories with the iPhone
This two-day certificate workshop provides all skills necessary for shooting quality video on your iPhone. We’ll take you through how to capture key moments from events, product launches, conferences and interviews to publishing on social networks or your website. You’ll work hands-on with experienced TV and online content producers to learn foolproof techniques for capturing professional looking videos on your iPhone. Plus, we’ve added an optional one-day lab: Advanced Video Editing for the iPhone.
Date and time: January 14-15, 2016, 8:30 am- 4:30 pm daily.
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $845 USD, Register Early for 10% discount. Discount immediately applied at registration.
NewsTrain: Digital Skills for Journalists, Lexington Edition
In this daylong NewsTrain, you will learn how to maximize your use of social media for reporting, as well as for personal branding and community engagement; tell video stories more efficiently in ways other than the traditional TV-news segment; shoot video effectively on your smartphone; spot enterprise stories in data, whether your beat is government, sports, the arts, business or education.
Date and time: Jan. 21, 2016
Producer: Associated Press Media Editors
Place: Hyatt Regency Lexington, 401 W. High St., Lexington, Kentucky 40507. The workshop precedes the Kentucky Press Association Winter Convention at the hotel.
Price: $75. It includes a full day of training, breakfast, lunch and snacks.
COURSES ON DEMAND
Whose Truth? Tools for Smart Science Journalism in the Digital Age
As journalists, we ignore science not only at our own peril, but at the peril of our readers, viewers and listeners. In this course, you’ll learn to how make sense of scientific data and tell stories in ways that connect with your audience. You’ll get techniques and tips to improve your interviewing and reporting skills. You’ll also learn how to lift the veil from front groups to launch investigations based on informed fact-gathering. When you’re done, you’ll have a toolkit of ways to identify and overcome the barriers journalists face when reporting on science-related topics.
Place: online
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Price: $29.95
Periscope 101: Break News Faster with Mobile Live-Streaming
The power of Periscope means any person can live-stream eyewitness video from anywhere, instantly. Just by pressing a few buttons, the free Periscope app can immediately transport viewers to a breaking news scene. In the hands of a journalist or communications professional, the possibilities are tremendous. Award-winning reporter and mobile journalism trainer Neal Augenstein has developed best practices for this quickly-evolving tool, to enable users to grab and hold an intrigued audience.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
Social Media Master Class Part I
MediaShift’s Social Media Editor Julie Keck will lead you through using some of the most powerful publishing tools any media professional can use. You can learn how to optimize your feeds, post the right amount each day, and help promote your content or projects better. You can establish yourself as an authority using the right mix of social media platforms and skills. And most of all, it’s fun. Don’t be intimidated or overwhelmed by social media – you can do it!
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
Social Media Master Class Part II
You’ve established yourself on social media, but you want to grow your audience. How do you get people talking about your content without seeming too self-promoting? Learn to harness the power of #hashtags, run a popular live Twitter chat, find out what’s trending today and how to jump in at the right moment with the right content.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
DigitalEd: iPhone Audio Reporting 101
The days of carrying recorders, microphones, and cables and cameras are gone – the smartphone is replacing bulky audio gear. This training will show how to use free and inexpensive mobile apps to record and edit audio (as well as video and photos) to creatively engage with audiences. Participants will be encouraged to use a variety of storytelling apps to communicate quickly and effectively.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
DigitalEd: How to Get Foundation Funding
Have you ever considered getting foundation grants to help support your journalism and media projects? Didn’t know where to start? This training will give an overview of the major foundations and what they typically fund. Major media foundations are going through upheaval, with major reorganizations happening at Knight Foundation, McCormick Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and others. There will be a discussion of these changes, and how they will affect your chances for grants. And now foundations are supporting both for-profit and non-profit organizations.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
DigitalEd: 5 Tech Tools to Improve Your Reporting
Whether you’re an investigative journalist or a daily beat reporter, free and low-cost technical tools and apps can help you improve and streamline your reporting. We’ll introduce you to tech tools and platforms that will help you obtain and manipulate data. You’ll learn how to scrape social accounts, without knowing any code. And you’ll discover how to use features that are built into services you already use in more powerful ways. Plus, we’ll look at some popular (free!) project management software and applications to help you collaborate with colleagues and manage reporting projects.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
DigitalEd: Smartphone Filmmaking 101
Whether you’re shooting coverage for your high-concept documentary, making a low-budget music video for your band, or shooting pick-ups for your corporate online PSA, there are a multitude ways to use your phone as a legitimate route for production. This training will illustrate the use of the iPhone as a low-budget professional production camera. We’ll include short practical tips on shooting techniques, emerging technology, apps and software alongside of traditional tips and tricks that can be added to a smartphone in order to make it a more robust production camera.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
When a Staff Isn’t a Staff: Managing Freelancers
In today’s freelance economy, more and more workers are seeing the benefits of working as a freelancer or contractor. But what does that mean for the businesses that employ them? With a lean staff, many publications rely on freelance contributors, so it’s to everybody’s benefit to make that relationship a good one. Good freelancer relationships don’t just fall out of the sky. In this Webinar, you’ll learn what makes freelancers happy (it’s more than just money!), how to cultivate good freelance relationships, and best practices for managing a sprawling, remote staff. With successful freelancer management, you’ll enjoy loyal, capable contributors and a robust publication.
Place: online
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Price: $29.95
How to Design a Brand
Learn how to design your brand by setting yourself apart from other businesses in your industry, build your own unique brand identity, conceptualize your logo design and creative direction, and apply your branding to establish credibility and increase exposure.
Place: online
Producer: CreatorUp
Price: $40
How to Crowdfund 10K
Learn how to raise $10,000 by designing a one-of-a-kind crowdfunding campaign. Learn how to set goals and better prepare yourself for a campaign launch. Once your campaign launches, you’ll be an expert on methods of raising the most money, and how to design a professional page.
Place: online
Producer: CreatorUp
Price: $30
How to Livestream on YouTube
Have you ever wanted to broadcast — live — but weren’t exactly sure how to do it, or what tools to use? Learn the technical nuts and bolds of how to livestream anything on YouTube, and how to market your show so people will see it.
Place: online
Producer: CreatorUp
Price: $25
How to Tell a Story to Build a Community
Do you need to build a following, but are not sure how to tell your story to grow your community? Learn how to tell a story that will help others relate to you and your mission to take action.
Place: online
Producer: CreatorUp
Price: $40
Using Facebook as a Reporting Tool
We get it. You use Facebook for posting photos and keeping in touch with family. You’re pretty happy with your trusty Rolodex of sources. And the most “journalism” you do online might be to verify the age of your teenager’s latest crush. But with the right skills, you can turn Facebook into a massively helpful engine to find story ideas, sources, information and quotes. You’ll also learn best practices for engaging with your audience not only to promote your content, but also as a community you care about and are a part of.
Place: online
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Price: $29.95
More course listings are available at MediaShift’s DigitalEd, Poynter’s NewsU, Berkeley Advanced Media Institute, Columbia Journalism School’s Continuing Education listings, Mediabistro and CreatorUp.
Sonia Paul is a freelance journalist reporting in India and the United States, and is the editorial assistant at MediaShift. Her work has appeared in a broad range of media, including the Al Jazeera Media Network, Caravan, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Mashable, New York Times, PRI’s The World, Roads & Kingdoms and VICE News. She previously produced the grant-funded podcast series Shizuoka Speaks, based in Japan. She is on Twitter and Instagram @sonipaul.