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: Facebook Live for Journalists and Publishers
What makes an engaging, high-quality Facebook Live broadcast? This training will explore what news organizations like NPR and AJ+ are doing to maximize their investment in Facebook Live. In addition, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how success can be measured on Facebook Live. (Here’s a hint: it’s more than simple numbers.)
Featured Presenter: Dale Blasingame, senior lecturer, Texas State University
Date and time: Oct. 20, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
DigitalEd: Smartphone Filmmaking 101
Whether you’re shooting coverage for your high-concept documentary or making a low-budget music video for your band, the smartphone in your pocket can be an invaluable tool for video 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. We’ll review and demonstrate some of the emerging technology, apps and software that can be added to a smartphone in order to make it a more robust production camera. While this class will concentrate on how to use an iPhone, most concepts are applicable to all smartphones.
Featured Presenter: Kyle Brannon, assistant professor, American University
Date and time: Oct. 26, 2016, 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
OCTOBER 2016
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. 17, 2016, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: $39
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. 18 and 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)
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
Social Media Campaign Strategy
Whether you are launching a new product, service or program or getting the word out about an event, social cause, or candidate, social media is the way to engage with your audience. So how do you make the best use of the platforms available and what are the coolest ways to create engaging social media campaigns?
Date and time: Oct. 21, 2016, 1-5 p.m. PT
Producer: Bay Area Video Coalition
Place: San Francisco
Price: $175 / $150 members
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
Drone Photography and Videography: Introduction
Drones have been used by park rangers to spot poachers and save rhinos, to show the scope of droughts and deforestation and to cover important events from festivals to protests. In this Introduction to Drones, Sally French, (aka The Drone GIrl) will share her experience as a drone journalist, enthusiast and instructor.
Date and time: Oct. 22, 2016, 10:30-4:30 p.m. PT
Producer: Bay Area Video Coalition
Place: San Francisco
Price: $235 / $195 member
Putting Fragmented Audiences Back Together Again: A Look at Video’s Audience-Based Future
Could audience fragmentation actually be your friend? Hear from experts who say that by combining technology and analytics it’s now possible to bring audiences together again to create campaigns that are more targeted, more efficient and more effective than ever.
Date and time: Oct. 26, 2016, 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT
Producer: Advertising Age and Comcast Spotlight
Place: Online
Price: Free
Creating Your Own Augmented Reality – Beginners Workshop
This is a hands-on augmented reality creation workshop foranyone who wants to roll up their sleeves and get started creating in AR. Artists, designers, video editors, social activists, tech-heads, musicians, marketers, and teachers are welcome. No programming knowledge is required. This dynamic three-hour workshop will get you up to date on all of the developments in the world of AR. You will leave with a completed AR project of your own and insider tips on how to create successful augmented reality experiences.
Date and time: Oct. 29, 2016, 1:00-4:00 p.m. PT
Producer: Dream Logic
Place: San Francisco
Price: $100
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)
Social Media for Crowdfunding
Social media gets a bad rep for being a solipsistic medium (and crowdfunding for being, you know, beggy), but I have to let you in on a little secret: It’s just about relationships and good business. In this session, learn why social media skills are essential to a successful crowdfunding campaign, how to be a responsible social media citizen, how to plan your social media for an effective campaign, and how to run a campaign that helps you build your audience, raise money, and continue doing what you love the most.
Featured Presenter: Julie Keck, media and communications director, Seed&Spark
Date and time: Nov. 2, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
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
NewsU: Immersive Storytelling with 360-Degree Video and 3D Virtual Reality
The recent explosion of 360-degree video and virtual reality has opened up new possibilities for visual storytelling. These emerging technologies enable storytellers to capture spaces and experiences from a new perspective, resulting in interactive and immersive content that transports media consumers into stories. In this webinar, you will learn the basics of producing 360-degree videos, 360-degree photos and 3D virtual reality content. We’ll help you find the best equipment, and share the best ways to use it all.
Date and time: Nov. 3, 2016, 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT
Producer: Poynter NewsU
Place: Webinar
Price: $29.95
Virtual Reality Video Production: Introduction
Virtual Reality film offers full immersion into another world and unparalleled connection with characters. As the technology necessary to make VR a reality has finally become accessible, it is our duty as media makers to learn how best to tell captivating stories in this evolving medium. This workshop is your hands-on crash course to being a VR storyteller.
Date and time: Nov. 5, 2016, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. PT
Producer: Bay Area Video Coalition
Place: San Francisco
Price: $345 / $295 members
Virtual Reality Video Post Production: Introduction
Virtual Reality film offers full immersion into another world and unparalleled connection with characters. As the technology necessary to make VR a reality has finally become accessible, it is our duty as media makers to learn how best to tell captivating stories in this evolving medium. This workshop is your hands-on crash course to editing in VR.
Date and time: Nov. 12, 2016, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. PT
Producer: Bay Area Video Coalition
Place: San Francisco
Price: $345 / $295 members
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
Online and Social Media Analytics
The key to creating, monitoring, and adjusting campaign strategy and goals begins with understanding the importance of metrics, stats and analytics. With this in mind, digital marketers and development departments need to know best practices for developing campaigns on multiple platforms, how to understand what statistics impact previously set goals and how to use analytics to fine-tune your marketing content.
Date and time: Dec. 2, 2016, 1-5 p.m. PT
Producer: Bay Area Video Coalition
Place: San Francisco
Price: $150 / $125 members
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
CUNY J+ Product Thinking for News
Product leads, product developers, product managers… those are job descriptions that have popped up in journalism and media job listings in the past couple of years. Media companies, both startups and legacy organizations, are hiring people who can design and execute products, such as mobile apps, email newsletters and chat bots that deliver news to people how, when and where they want it. The product approach is critical to the future of media and can lead to rewarding new career paths for individuals and to sustainability for companies. This 5-week, project-driven course will cover the principles, techniques and workflow of product development and management for news. It is open to journalists, designers, technologists and others interested in better serving the information needs of audiences, and looking to expand career opportunities.
Deadline to apply: Dec. 1, 2016
Date and time: Jan. 7, 14, 21, 28 and Feb. 4, 2017, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. EST
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: New York City
Price: Free if selected
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.
Bianca Fortis is the associate editor at MediaShift. Her work has been published in newspapers throughout the country. She was a recipient of the 2011 Scripps Howard Foundation’s Semester in Washington Fellowship and won the 2013 I.F. Stone Award for Emerging Journalists through the Nation Institute. She is a founding member of the Transborder Media storytelling collective. Follow her on Twitter @biancafortis.