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
How to Personalize Your Content for Better Engagement
You’ve heard of targeted advertising, but what about targeted content? If you’re going to take the time to make sure your ad message is the right one, why not also make sure you deliver the right content to the right person at the right time. This online panel will include a discussion by top publishers who are serving personalized content to drive better engagement for their audience. And the best way to personalize content is to improve back-end analytics across multiple platforms. We’ll discuss how various publishers accomplish that, as well as describe how Acquia Lift can help increase customer loyalty and conversions.
Speakers: Mark Glaser, MediaShift; Dave Ingram, Acquia; Ben Ham, Washington Post.
This free panel is sponsored by Acquia, the digital experience company.
Date and time: March 2, 2016; 1 pm ET / 10 am PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: FREE
JANUARY 2016
Super Researcher: Find People, Dig Deeper and Get Your Facts Right
Find even the most elusive sources. Dig up hard-to-find information. Avoid embarrassing mistakes in your news stories. In this series of four short workshops, CUNY J-School Chief Librarian Barbara Gray, the former director of news research at the New York Times, will guide you through the most accessible techniques for investigating people and verifying the facts, including Facebook, Google+, Geofencing, Geolocation, mostly free and low-cost databases, WikiLeaks and many more. Each workshop meets at 6:30 p.m. and ends at 8:00 p.m. at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
Date and time: Jan. 7, 14, 21, 28, 2016, 6:30-8pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: Attend an individual workshop for $48 or purchase the whole series for $149.
FEBRUARY 2016
Personal Vision With Eugene Richards
This five-day shooting workshop is for advanced amateurs and professional photographers seeking to develop a more personal way of seeing, hone their shooting skills, and more confidently and intuitively work with people. Each day, Richards will guide a small class of 14 through pertinent discussions, hands-on assignments and individual projects.
Date and time: Feb. 1-5, 2016, 9:30am-5pm ET, Application deadline Jan. 13, 2016.
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $400
Chat Apps For News
Chat apps are taking over social media — 800 million on WhatsApp, 700 million on Facebook Messenger, 100 million daily active users on Snapchat. And media companies, including news outlets, are paying attention. In this two-hour evening workshop, Eytan Oren will guide you through this new landscape and explain what strategies and experiments news and media brands are engaging in to reach these closed networks.
Date and time: Feb. 3, 2016, 6:30pm
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $25
How to Be a Social Media Editor
Companies are hiring at all levels people who understand digital audiences and can communicate with them on social media. There’s a reason for it: With all the choices out there, media companies can no longer expect audiences to come to them; they have to go where those audiences live — on social media. This 5-week course is designed for anyone in communications who is passionate about social media and wants to create new career opportunities for themselves. We will cover the principles behind serving audiences on social media, using social media for news gathering, engaging through great headlines and visuals, building loyalty and community, learning from analytics and creating social media strategies and campaigns.
Date and time: Feb. 16, Feb. 23, Mar. 1, Mar. 8, Mar. 15, 2016, 6:30-9pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $250
Adobe Premiere Pro CC
An intermediate course for professionals who have some familiarity with video editing. Over the courses of five evening sessions, you’ll be proficient enough on Premiere Pro, the industry standard, to start using the software for all of your video projects.
Date and time: Feb. 24, Mar. 2, Mar. 9, Mar. 16, Mar. 23, 2016, 6:30-9pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $250
35th Annual Northern Short Course
This three-day event is packed with more than two dozen workshops on a variety of topics relevant to professionals and students in the field of visual journalism. Learn from and network with industry leaders, as they share their work and discuss what makes them successful. Choose from a variety of workshops and lectures on topics such as business practices, multimedia, lighting, video storytelling and more. Sign up for one-on-one portfolio reviews from top photo editors and photographers. Meet manufacturers and suppliers of photographic equipment, presenting the latest technology available.
Date and time: Feb. 25-27, 2016
Producer: Northern Short Course and National Press Photographers Association
Place: Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel, Iselin, New Jersey
Price: $105-$345 (see here for pricing details)
MARCH 2016
Digital Media Skills Certificate
Empowering the next generation of digital media storytellers. This intensive 9-week graduate level certificate program focuses on the strategic implementation and production of digital media content for a web facing and mobile-first audience.
Date and time: Mar. 1-Apr. 28, 2016, 6-9pm PT
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $3,495, 10% discount for early registration by Feb. 1, 2016
Poynter Producer Project (Spring 2016)
Making stories work involves more than just teases and live shots. This unique seminar will help you expand your expertise as a TV producer with new writing, storytelling, coaching and ethical decision-making skills. We’re combining the best of online learning with in-person coaching and mentoring to help you tell stronger stories and make those tough calls on deadline. In the online portion of this seminar, Poynter’s Al Tompkins will guide you through weekly readings, activities and live group discussions. You’ll also come to Poynter on March 13-15 for a weekend of in-person coaching and feedback. Throughout this course, you’ll gain practical and creative ideas to share with your colleagues and a new energy to bring to your work.
Date and time: Mar. 6-Apr. 1, 2016, Application deadline Feb. 21, 2016.
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Place: online, Poynter Institute
Price: $1099
Intro to Food Writing & Photography
A one-day workshop to learn food writing and photography for journalists, bloggers and photographers.
Date and time: Mar. 19, 2016, 9am-4pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $249
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.
Date and time: Mar. 23-24, 2016, 8:30am-4:30pm PT
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $845, early registration discount of 10% automatically applied if register by Feb. 5, 2016.
2016 Computer-Assisted Reporting Boot Camp: March
Learn to acquire electronic information, use spreadsheets and databases to analyze information and translate that information into stories. These boot camps are offered several times each year. In addition, NICAR provides followup help when participants return to their organizations. Click for registration, fees and schedule information.
Date and time: Mar. 28-Apr. 1, 2016
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Place: Columbia, MO
Price: Prices vary according to membership and type of workshop attending. See link above.
Video for Social Media
Video is a powerful engagement tool. Marketing research shows that including visuals with your social media posts increases engagement by 180 percent. It’s no wonder that social media feeds include more and more videos. But those videos follow new rules — they need to be shorter, intimate, explanatory. This two-hour evening workshop will go over ways to enhance your social media output with better videos. Videojournalist Bob Sacha has taught this popular class many times, to journalism students and reporters from the worlds largest metro dailies.
Date and time: Mar. 30, 2016, 6:30pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $25
APRIL 2016
iPhone Video
Smart phones have opened up new video possibilities for both professional journalists and citizen storytellers. Images produced with today’s smart phones now have sufficient quality to be published on all digital media platforms. In fact, many news organizations now require reporters to take their own smart phone videos of breaking news events. This 4-hour, Saturday morning course will help you enhance your work or hobby with better smart phone videos. We will go over some tips, shoot some footage and review it.
Date and time: Apr. 16, 2016, 10am ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $199
Video Storytelling For the Web
Over two weekends, this workshop concentrates on video storytelling for the web, focusing on non-narrated stories of compelling characters and short, sharply focused pieces targeted for online viewing. We’ll talk about what type of stories work best for web video, finding strong characters, structuring stories, how to film and conduct an interview for a non-narrated piece, how to capture compelling visual sequences and finally, how to edit a short video.
Date and time: Apr. 23-24 & Apr. 30-May 1, 2016, 11am-4pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $599
MAY 2016
Smarter Photos with Smart Phones
Smart phones have opened up new photographic possibilities for both professional journalists and citizen storytellers. Images produced with today’s smart phones now have sufficient quality to be published on all media platforms from digital to print. In fact, many news organizations now require reporters to take their own smart phone photos of breaking news events. This 5-hour, Saturday morning course will help you enhance your work or hobby with better smart phone pictures. Photojournalist John Smock has taught this popular class many times, to journalism students and others.
Date and time: May 14, 2016, 9am-2pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $199
The Lede Program
An intensive, post-bac certification program from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and Department of Computer Science designed to equip journalists and storytellers of all kinds with the computational skills needed to turn data into narrative, break out of Excel, perform in-depth investigations, harness APIs, explain complex subjects, write data-driven stories, process document dumps, find insights and leads and perform in-depth investigations.
Date and time: May 23-Sep.1, 2016, Application deadline Feb. 15, 2016.
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $14,316
JUNE 2016
Data Storytelling and Visualization
We swim in a world of data – from election results, budgets, and census reports, to Facebook updates and image uploads. Journalists and other communicators need to know how to find stories in data and shape them in compelling ways. It’s good storytelling and it’s good business as startup news organizations, legacy media and other brands are actively hiring data storytellers. This 5-week course will teach you how to gather and analyze data to find stories and to visualize them as interactive narratives. This fast-growing discipline is at the crossroads of storytelling, statistical analysis and interactive design.
Date and time: June 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 2016, 6:30-9pm ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, 219 W. 40th Street, New York, NY
Price: $499
Columbia Publishing Course
If you are considering a career in book, magazine, or digital media publishing, the Columbia Publishing Course will give you the tools and the training you need to succeed:
– Broad exposure to current issues in publishing
– Unparalleled access to top publishing professionals
– Hands-on publishing experience
– Comparison of publishing types that informs career decisions
– Extensive career placement support
– Access to a large, active alumni network
Date and time: June 12-July 22, 2016
Producer: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY
Price: TBA
JULY 2016
Columbia Journalism Video Workshop
You know that the best way to tell a story is to show it. Columbia Journalism School faculty teach you how to tell your story through video. Instruction focuses on the essentials–how to conceive of and structure a story, how to handle a camera, how to use post production software — and delivers much more. Interactive discussion and lab work is all done in small groups — a maximum of fifteen students — meaning that your progress is never overlooked. We also provide opportunities to meet leading video producers in New York. Studying at Columbia Journalism School you’re only a quick train ride from some of the most innovative newsrooms and production companies in the world.
Date and time: July 5-22, 2016
Producer: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY
Price: $4500
Summer Investigative Reporting Workshop, NYC
Over three weeks, participants in all media platforms examine what investigative journalism is and how to conceive, research and write such stories. The process involves recognizing when something should be a long-term project, basic criteria for launching into the story, testing and retesting the hypothesis throughout the investigation, and shifting direction when the reporting dictates that the story direction has changed. Students will be asked in think about possible investigative projects they want to work on upon their return to the workplace, using the lessons learned during the course. Workshops will be taught on creating databases, retrieving data from outside sources, locating and using public records in different parts of the world, utilizing financial documents, interviewing techniques, how to structure an investigative story, using multimedia to support projects, writing and editing a long-form narrative, and more.
Date and time: July 5-22, 2016
Producer: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY
Price: $7500 (10% discount for Columbia Journalism School alumni and 5% discount for past Columbia Journalism Continuing Education students and current Columbia University faculty, staff, and students)
SUMMER 2016
Arts & Culture Writing Workshop
In this 2-week (15 day) course, students will learn about professional practices, ethics, and standards for writing about the arts, whether as reporters, bloggers, re-cappers or critics. Making our primary resource the vast, diverse, and superb New York City cultural scene, the program combines site visits, performances, and guest speakers with classroom workshops to immerse students in the doing of arts journalism. Students will complete a series of assignments: reported stories, reviews, and exercises. Each student will also take a turn blogging about each day’s activities on a next-day deadline. Pieces will go through rewrites and revisions with the goal of being published on the NYC-Arts-Intensive tumblr. Students will also be expected to complete daily reading assignments of exemplary articles.
Date and time: TBA
Producer: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY
Price: TBA
2016 Computer-Assisted Reporting Boot Camp: August
Learn to acquire electronic information, use spreadsheets and databases to analyze information and translate that information into stories. These boot camps are offered several times each year. In addition, NICAR provides followup help when participants return to their organizations. Click for registration, fees and schedule information.
Date and time: Aug. 7-11, 2016
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Place: Columbia, MO
Price: Prices vary according to membership and type of workshop attending. See link above.
Mapping Boot Camp
Learn how to uncover interesting news stories by mapping data with geographic information system (GIS) software. IRE and NICAR will conduct this hands-on training using ArcGIS. Participants should have basic knowledge in using relational database software such as Access or MySQL. Mapping mini-boot camps are held at IRE and NICAR headquarters in Columbia, Mo. Click for registration, fees and schedule information.
Date and time: Aug. 12-14, 2016
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Place: Columbia, MO
Price: Prices vary according to membership and type of workshop attending. See link above.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford
If you are considering a career in book, magazine, or digital media publishing, the Columbia Publishing Course will give you the tools and the training you need to succeed:
– Broad exposure to current issues in publishing
– Unparalleled access to top publishing professionals
– Hands-on publishing experience
– Comparison of publishing types that informs career decisions
– Extensive career placement support
– Access to a large, active alumni network
Qualified candidates who apply by January 15, 2016 will receive word of their status by early February. Applicants who are not accepted then may remain in the applicant pool and be judged again later in the spring when all of the applications are in. The regular admission deadline is April 15, 2016. If space remains, applications may be considered on a rolling basis after April 15.
Date and time: Sep. 4-30, 2016
Producer: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Oxford University
Price: TBA.
COURSES ON DEMAND
An Introduction to DocumentCloud
DocumentCloud is a catalog of primary source documents and a tool for annotating, organizing and publishing them on the web. Documents are contributed by journalists, researchers and archivists. We’re helping reporters get more out of documents and helping newsrooms make their online presence more engaging.
Place: online
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Price: free
Election Coverage: Follow the Money
There are several ways that political funds can play a role in key states, especially during an election year. You’ll see how to trace money that comes from outside sources to state-based political groups, and how to follow the path of expenditures from the ground game to the air wars.
Place: online
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Price: free
Marketing with Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr
Market your brand using Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr. This course will give you the knowledge of each of these platforms and enable you to identify the most appropriate ways to implement them to meet your business objectives.
Place: online
Producer: Mediabistro
Price: $149
Skills in 60: Build an Editorial Calendar for Social Media Channels
This in-depth short course will show you how to develop integrated editorial content calendars and establish a robust production and publishing strategy across all your social channels. The video lessons will guide you on how to plan, create, distribute and analyze your editorial calendar for long term success.
Place: online
Producer: Mediabistro
Price: $49
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
Your Photojournalism Survival Kit with Ron Haviv
Ron Haviv brings two decades of experience in building a photojournalism career on carefully laid groundwork. In this course, you’ll learn how to identify a captivating story and organize a plan for shooting it; how to create a budget and a pitch letter; and how to plan for any eventuality during the shoot, and cope with setbacks when they strike.
Place: online
Producer: Ron Haviv, Emmy-nominated photojournalist
Price: $79
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.
Ben DeJarnette is the associate editor at MediaShift. He is also a freelance contributor for Pacific Standard, InvestigateWest, Men’s Journal, Runner’s World, Oregon Quarterly and others. He’s on Twitter @BenDJduck.
