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, and others. If we’re missing anything, or you’d like to pay to promote your training in the “featured training” spot of our weekly post, please contact Mark Glaser at mark [at] mediashift [dot] org. Any non-MediaShift courses in the “featured training” slot are paid placements. Note: Course and training descriptions are excerpts, edited for length and clarity.
FEATURED TRAININGS
DigitalEd: Snapchat and Instagram Stories for Journalists
Snapchat and Instagram have become legitimate distribution outlets for news publishers, including at CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Vox, Mashable, Buzzfeed and many more. This training will teach journalists and storytellers how to use Snapchat and Instagram Stories to strengthen their audience engagement, especially among millennials and other early adopters of these “ephemeral messaging” platforms. Drawing on real-world case studies, instructor Tim Cigelske will demonstrate how Instagram and Snapchat can be used to respond to unfolding events in real time and (believe it or not) even tell substantive stories. This training will cover the culture of Snapchat and Instagram and equip participants with tactical skills they can use on their own accounts.
Featured Presenter: Tim Cigelske, MediaShift
Date and time: Sep. 15, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
SEPTEMBER 2016
NewsU: The Web’s Best Editing Resources
Editing used to require a bookshelf full or reference books. But now online resources mean editors don’t need a stack of dictionaries, thesauri and almanacs to do their jobs. Still, not all online resources are alike. This webinar will help you identify the best free (and mostly free) sites for reference and fact-checking.
Date and time: Sep. 15, 2016, 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: Poynter NewsU
Place: Online webinar
Price: $29.95
CUNY J+ 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. Students will leave the class with well-practiced new skills and a 1-minute edited video around an “object of meaning.”
Date and time: Sep. 17-18 & 24-25, 2016
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $799
CUNY J+ Fun with Gifs
Strengthen your social media game with gifs. This workshop taught by John Smock, director of the CUNYJ Photojournalism Program, will cover using Adobe Photoshop as a design tool with a special focus on GIF animations.
Date and time: Sep. 21, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $95
CUNY J+ Edit, Sequence and Promote Your Photographs
The editor of the New York Times’ photo blog The Lens will cover story structure, photo editing and marketing for presentation in magazines, books, exhibitions or on the web.
Date and time: Sep. 24-25, 2016
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $600
CUNY J+ Video for Social Media
Video is a powerful engagement tool. It’s no wonder that social media feeds include more and more videos. This popular workshop will go over ways to enhance your social media output with videos made for shorter viewing on the go.
Date and time: Sep. 28, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City or online webinar
Price: $25
DigitalEd: Using Twitter to Cover Live Events
When news is breaking or an important event is unfolding, people turn to Twitter for authoritative, trusted voices and real-time information and insights. In this session, content creators of all stripes will learn how to use Twitter to provide effective live coverage of news, sports, conferences, and other events. The presentation will feature numerous examples and explore tools and time-saving techniques that help users maximize output and audience engagement.
Featured Presenter: Ian Lamont, author of Twitter in 30 Minutes
Date and time: Sep. 28, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
Technology and Product Design for News Leaders
The technology, skills and talent mix in news organizations has shifted dramatically over the past 10 years. What are the key things to know about managing a successful digital newsroom? How do you plan and budget for tech projects, manage vendors and technical staff, and get the most out of analytics? Join INN for a two-day workshop for executive directors and news editors to level up your digital leadership skills and capacity.
Date and time: Sep. 28-29, 2016
Producer: Institute for Nonprofit News
Place: Columbia College in Chicago (travel stipends available)
Price: Free for INN members; $100 for LION members; $250 for non-members
NewsTrain Digital Skills Workshop
Sessions include making smart choices in digital storytelling, reporting with social media, producing data-driven enterprise, creating data visualizations, editing yourself, shooting shareable smartphone video, gathering news using your smartphone, writing for mobile, and building audiences with Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook Live and Periscope.
Date and time: Sep. 30-Oct. 1, 2016
Producer: Associated Press Media Editors
Place: Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Price: $75 (early-bird price through Sep. 1); $85 (regular price)
OCTOBER 2016
CUNY J+ SuperResearcher
Find even the most elusive sources. Dig up hard-to-find information. Avoid embarrassing mistakes in your news stories, in this series of workshops by the former director of news research at the New York Times.
Date and time: Oct. 4, 11, 18, 25, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City or online webinar
Price: $49 (single workshop); $149 (entire series)
DigitalEd: How to Host Great Live Media Events
Great events don’t happen by accident. It takes a lot of hard work and time to find the right people, book a venue, get good speakers, and then promote, promote, promote! I’ll explain how MediaShift got started in events — with simple mixers — and how we use our entire team to help promote and run events. I’ll also address how media outlets can best make use of their platform before, during and after an event. (Note: We don’t run large conferences, and this training will not focus on those.)
Featured Presenter: Mark Glaser, MediaShift
Date and time: Oct. 5, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
DigitalEd: Smarter Audience Analytics for Journalists
Do you get bored reading your own analytics report? Are you only reporting numbers? Analytics are a powerful tool, but only reporting pageviews and other statistics doesn’t change how a newsroom operates. In this online training, we’ll look at how you can put analytics to work for you. What is your baseline? What measures do you use to determine a post’s success? What do analytics tell you about your audience? How can you turn that insight into actionable items by your staff?
Featured Presenter: Elizabeth Stephens, news editor, Columbia Missourian
Date and time: Oct. 6, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
CUNY J+ News Bots
News bots, Twitter bots, Slack bots, chat bots, weather bots… Robot journalism is one of the year’s hot topics as more media brands are experimenting with the automated delivery of news on mobile. In this two-hour workshop, Maya Baratz will explain what bots are, how they work and what they may mean for journalism.
Date and time: Oct. 5, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $25
CUNY J+ FOIA Online
Using Freedom of Information laws in the age of the Internet represents new challenges and new opportunities. The former director of news research at the New York Times, will guide you through the most accessible, mostly free FOIA resources the Internet has to offer, including letter generators, repositories of public documents, tools and organizations.
Date and time: Oct. 12, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $39
CUNY J+ VR Video: Intro to 360-Degree Shooting and Stitching
This all-day, hands-on workshop teaches the basics of 360° video production and post-production. Participants will practice shooting, stitching and editing 360° video, as well as discuss immersive storytelling techniques, ethics and distribution platforms. Students will work in small guided teams with 6-GoPro camera rigs and the Kolor stitching software.
Date and time: Oct. 14, 2016, 9:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $449
The Art of the Pitch: Selling Your Stories
As the journalism industry evolves, newspapers, magazines, and websites are relying more and more on freelance writers. In fact, there’s no better time to break into journalism as a freelancer—and that means this is the time to learn how to pitch. In this course, taught by a former New York Times editor, learn how to hatch fresh story ideas that will draw editors’ attention and how to portray these ideas in winning ways. Whether your target publication is Buzzfeed or The Wall Street Journal, and whether you write features, profiles, or criticism, the pitch is the key to opening editors’ doors, getting your writing noticed, and getting paid.
Date and time: Oct. 17, 24, 31 and Nov. 7, 2016, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Producer: New York University
Place: New York City
Price: $270
CUNY J+ All About Excel
Get started with spreadsheets with the powerful software Excel. Learn to organize, manipulate and visualize your data to unearth trends and stories.
Date and time: Oct. 19 & 26, 2016, 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $199
CUNY J+ Data Journalism Bootcamp
This intensive 3-day course will teach you how to find and analyze datasets, how to find stories buried within and to visualize them for powerful narratives. You will be able to use your new skills to work on your personal data project under the guidance of seasoned data journalist Lam Thuy Vo.
Date and time: Oct. 21-23, 2016, 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $899
NOVEMBER 2016 & BEYOND
CUNY J+ Social Media 101 Series
Learn the ins-and-outs and pro tips from professionals who use these platforms every day. Six independent sessions for Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Snapchat, and Instagram.
Date and time: Nov. 1, 8, 15, 29 and Dec. 6, 13, 2016, 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $49 (single workshop); $250 (entire series)
CUNY J+ Intro. to Coding
This class is for journalists and others who want to understand the basics of coding, in particular the HTML, CSS and Javascript languages. News and media employers have consistently listed coding as a sought-after skills and the ability to work with newsroom coders as a management plus.
Date and time: Nov. 2 & 9, 2016, 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $199
CUNY J+ Incredibly Useful Productivity Tools
During this evening workshop, Jeremy Caplan will guide you through a curated list of current tools to discover, test and compare so you can build your unique, personal toolkit to organize yourself and work better.
Date and time: Nov. 16, 2016, 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $25
CUNY J+ So You Want to Be in Academia?
This workshop is for journalists who want to teach on the side or transition to academia. Andrew Mendelson, associate dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, will give provide you with a better understanding of the mysteries surrounding college teaching, both full-time and part-time.
Date and time: Dec. 7, 2016, 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City or online webinar
Price: $25
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
Twitter Marketing
Become a better, smarter marketer with Twitter to generate word-of-mouth, create leads, and grow your business. From hashtag strategy to deep data dives, influencer outreach to employing an effective posting schedule, you’ll master Twitter 140 characters at a time.
Place: online
Producer: Mediabistro
Price: $129
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: free
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
Verification: The Basics
When a violent protest, mass-scale accident, or natural hazard unfolds, information tends to get jumbled, causing fear and confusion. With the growing use of technology, we have witnessed innumerable false and fake stories being shared on social networks, including photoshopped images, or reuploaded diced videos from unrelated events in the past. With increasing frequency, journalists are required to master the skills and expertise to handle the information that circulates on the Internet and elsewhere. Complementing our recently launched resource, the Verification Handbook, this course will provide the basic knowledge and techniques of verification in the digital age.
Place: online
Producer: Learno
Price: free
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.
