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 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 Training
How to Get Better Engagement Metrics
Engagement is so much more than Facebook reach. For publishers who want to cultivate a direct relationship with readers, it’s the top of the customer funnel. And how you define and measure engagement in your newsroom matters directly to whether you’ll be leading the industry or lagging behind. This live online panel will include a discussion with publishers who are at the forefront of using engagement metrics to build a direct relationship with readers, improve the quality of their journalism and drive revenue for their businesses. This free online panel is sponsored by Content Insights.
Date and time: April 18, 10 am PT / 1 pm ET
Panelists: Jason Alcorn, MediaShift; Hannah Wise, Dallas Morning News; Alexandra Smith, WhereBy.Us
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online
Price: Free
March 2018
The Art of the Interview With Lane DeGregory
When you know what you want to write about, how do you scout for subjects? And, once you find them, how do you get them to open up to you? In this webinar, we will talk about ways to court your characters, get them to trust you and, ultimately, take you home. We will also discuss methods of research, records-searching, and taking notes for feature stories.
Date and time: March 21, 2018, 2 p.m. ET
Instructor: Lane DeGregory
Producer: Poynter NewsU
Place: Online
Price: $29.95
APME’s NewsTrain Digital-Skills Workshops
For just $75, early-bird registrants get a full day or day-plus of digital training at APME’s NewsTrain workshops in Muncie, Indiana, and Phoenix. Skills taught include social reporting and branding, data-driven enterprise, mobile storytelling and newsgathering, smartphone video, open records, digital tools and data visualization. Attendees regularly rate NewsTrain’s training as 4.5, with 5 as highly useful and effective. Fifty general scholarships are offered for Muncie NewsTrain, and diversity scholarships and discounted hotel rooms are available for both. Some early registrants will receive free AP Stylebooks. Learn more and register for the Muncie, Indiana, and Phoenix NewsTrains.
Date and time: March 24 in Muncie, Indiana, and April 6-7 in Phoenix
Instructors include: Middle Tennessee State’s Val Hoeppner, Arizona State’s Sarah Cohen, USA Today’s Mark Nichols and USC’s Laura E. Davis
Producer: Associated Press Media Editors
Place: Ball State University in Muncie and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix
Price: Early-bird rate of $75 through Feb. 24 for Muncie and through March 6 for Phoenix. Scholarships available. The Muncie scholarship deadline is Feb. 12.
Podcasting: Telling Stories in Sound
We have a new infatuation with audio podcasts and rightly so. Streaming audio has become easier to access, is readily available on mobile devices, and is now more personalized than ever before. This presents a huge opportunity for publishers, marketers, journalists, and communication professionals to connect with audiences via this “new” medium.
Date and time: March 26-27, 2018
Instructor: Laura Klivans and Lacy Jane Roberts
Producer: UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Berkeley, Calif.
Price: $865
New Video Storytelling
Video storytelling is a quick paced skill based workshop that will have you producing high quality, professional videos. The best videos will always be the ones that that grab your attention, make you think, make you laugh, or cry, or elicit an emotion – and make you want to watch till the end. Join us to learn best-in-class techniques for producing engaging videos for the web and on social media.
Date and time: March 26-29, 2018
Instructor: Chris Schodt, Madeleine Bair and Lacy Roberts
Producer: UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Berkeley, Calif.
Price: $2,100
APRIL 2018 & BEYOND
TV Assignment Editor Workshop
Poynter is offering training exclusively for TV assignment editors. Participants will learn how to find stories and sources online, how to use great new tools to get stories online and on social media faster and how to help others to “get” your vision for the stories you are pitching. Assignment editors also have to help newsrooms drill down to find the truth in stories. This course aims to strengthen participants’ critical thinking skills to help inoculate them from the noise and nonsense that is constantly coming at them. In this seminar, Poynter’s Al Tompkins will guide participants through weekly readings, activities and live group discussions.
Date and time: April 2 – 27, 2018
Instructor: Al Tompkins, Poynter
Producer: Poynter NewsU
Place: Online
Price: $349
Video Storytelling for the Web
Learn to produce compelling original video content that will connect readers, clients or stakeholders to the news, projects and people that matter. In this class, which will include a lot of 1-1 instruction, you will pitch, storyboard, shoot and edit a short, interview-based video story. No experience needed, but lots of passion required.
Date and time: April 9, 16 23, 30 and May 7, 2018
Instructor: Erica Berenstein, New York Times
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Price: $599; $479 until Feb. 1
Social Media and Audience Engagement
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. They will cover the principles behind serving audiences on social media, using social media for news gathering, Social media video, community building, learning from analytics and creating strategies and campaigns.
Date and time: April 10, 17, 24 and May 1 and 8, 2018
Instructor: Jennifer Chang, Quartz
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Price: $599; $479 until Feb. 1
Adobe After Effects and Motion Graphics
In this daylong workshop, you will learn the basics of Adobe After Effects, the leading software for digital visual effects, motion graphics and animation. Animation and motion graphics storytelling are in-demand skills and provides excellent opportunities to help news audiences understand complex stories in a dynamic and visual medium. Examples include animated infographics and data visualizations, kinetic typography, character animations, and visual animated explanations.
Date and time: April 14, 9:30-5 p.m.
Instructor: Graham Roberts, New York Times
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $549; $439 by Feb. 1
25 Incredibly Useful Tools for Your iPhone
Discover and experiment with digital tools and apps to increase your productivity, save your sanity and make the most of your iPhone.
Date and time: April 19, 6:30-9 p.m.
Instructor: Jeremy Kaplan, Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the CUNY J School
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $25
Hooked on Junk News: Breaking Bad Habits and Rebuilding Trust in the Media
As a mediator among those who create, distribute and consume the news, the Newseum wants to help each group better understand the others. In this session, the Newseum’s Kristi Kenneth will focus on revealing what the organization has learned about the current media landscape through workshops with news consumers young and old around the globe. What issues cause the most confusion? Where does the public lay blame for problems like “fake” news? What skills do students and the general public need to develop, and what can journalists do to help bolster those skills?
Date and time: April 26, 2 p.m. ET
Instructor: Kristi Kenneth, Newseum
Producer: Poynter
Place: Online
Price: Free
Product Thinking for News Bootcamp
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, 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.
Date and time: April 28 – April 29, 2018
Instructor: Hong Qu, CUNY
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $479
Sports Journalism in the Digital Age
Data, social media and technology have fundamentally changed the way we report on the world of sports. More than ever, fans are able to communicate with their favorite athletes directly and able to publish about sports themselves. Sports journalists must find their place in this fast-paced ecosystem.
Date and time: May 2, 2018, 6:30 – 9 p.m.
Instructor: Luis Miguel Echegaray, Sports Illustrated
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $25
Magazine Fact-Checking
Fact-checking is vital to journalism. This is especially true now that we’re dealing with so-called “fake news” and “alternative facts.” In this two-and-a-half-hour workshop, Brooke Borel, journalist and author of The Chicago Guide to Fact-Checking, will walk you through the what why and how of fact-checking. You’ll learn how to vet sources of all types and how to fact-check quotes, photographs, headlines, and more. We’ll also cover how to navigate relationships with writers, reporters, editors, and sources.
Date and time: May 9, 2018, 6:30 – 9 p.m.
Instructor: Brooke Borel
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $25
Drone Journalism Flight School
This all-day, hands-on workshop teaches the basics of drones journalism and videography. In the morning, instructor Travis Fox will go over the ins and outs of drones and their applications for journalism, the legal and ethical limitations for flying drones and how to apply for a Federal Aviation Administration’s Part 107 drone pilot’s certificate. In the afternoon, the class will head to Brooklyn’s Calvert Vaux Park to fly a DJI Inspire 1 drone and capture aerial video footage of the city. Each participant will have a limited time to fly the drone in the park. The flight portion of the class is weather and FAA permitting.
Date and time: May 19, 2018, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Instructor: Travis Fox
Producer: CUNY J+
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $250
Data Visualization for Storytellers
A deluge of data is being made available for public use, but complex raw data sets can be difficult to understand and interpret. Having the tools and techniques to present illustrated data to your audience with aesthetic form and functionality are critical for conveying ideas effectively.
Date and time: June 28-29, 2018
Instructor: Peter Aldhous, Berkeley Advanced Media Institute’s Data Visualization Instructor
Producer: UC Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Berkeley, Calif.
Price: $895
COURSES ON DEMAND
How to Get Better Newsletter Metrics
Newsletters are a direct line to your audience. In a pivot-to-reader world, there’s arguably no product more valuable for digital publishers. Not surprisingly, newsletters have been one of the most exciting media segments to watch, and in 2018 we can expect even more innovation. This live online panel will include a discussion with publishers who are at the forefront of using newsletter metrics to increase engagement, develop new products, and drive revenue for their businesses.
Producer: DigitalEd
Place: Online
Price: Free
How to Verify Photos and Videos
Learn how to verify photos and videos taken from social networks, especially in the context of breaking news. With “fake news” such a hot topic, how can you quickly and effectively verify materials that may be, well, fake? Most fake photos and videos can be checked quite quickly, allowing journalists and researchers to stop the spread of so-called “fake news” before it gets onto your Facebook feed. This course will help you develop an eye for fake photos and video, allowing you to establish the originality and veracity of the content. These skills are especially useful in a breaking news situation, in which verifying a photo or video will not just tell you if it’s real, but also additional information that can provide additional information for further reporting.
Instructor: Aric Toler, Bellingcat analyst
Producer: DigitalEd
Place: Online
Price: $19
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.
Producer: DigitalEd
Place: Online
Price: $19
How to Report Responsibly on Cannabis
The cannabis beat intersects with science, medicine, business, regulation, technology, agriculture, law, criminal justice and individual liberties. At a time when coverage of these issues is shaping public policy, journalists sometimes get it right — and sometimes get it wrong. The consequences are wide-ranging, from misinformed voters to poorly crafted laws gone unchecked. Editors increasingly realize the value of covering the growing billion-dollar cannabis industry. And more journalists are on the cannabis beat than any other time, with legal cannabis in eight states and medical cannabis in more than half the country. This guide to covering cannabis aims to establish a shared language and common journalistic standards to help the quality of coverage keep up with the quantity.
Producer: Poynter
Place: Online
Price: $30
User Experience Testing 101
The rapid pace of technological change drives not only more innovative approaches to storytelling but also new behaviors among story consumers. Understanding how audiences experience media platforms and the stories they deliver is one key to retaining and growing them in a shifting media landscape. Applied in a wide-range of professions toward goals as diverse as the design of new digital products and improving hospital patient outcomes, user experience testing is an approach to understanding what audiences do and why they do it in order to adapt to their needs and leverage their behaviors.
Producer: DigitalEd
Place: Online
Price: $19
How to Verify Photos and Videos
Most fake photos and videos can be checked quite quickly, allowing journalists and researchers to stop the spread of so-called “fake news” before it gets onto your Facebook feed. This course will help you develop an eye for fake photos and video, allowing you to establish the originality and veracity of the content. These skills are especially useful in a breaking news situation, in which verifying a photo or video will not just tell you if it’s real, but also can provide additional information for further reporting.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: $19
Making Sense of Local Metrics
What metrics matter most to local publishers today? Long gone are the days of tracking pageviews to measure the success of your news site, when the loyalty and quality of your audience matters much more than its raw size. Today publishers have more ways than ever to use Google Analytics and other tools to measure traffic and engagement, and even with a small team (or just yourself!) you can take advantage of this to build a more sustainable business.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: $19
Motion Graphics for Social Media
You’ve seen moving ads on your social media feed. Creating your own well designed animations including text, shape, photos and video is easier to achieve than it appears. Find a way to spice up the campaign for your business, film, nonprofit, or event.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Use Podcasts in the Classroom
Teachers can easily get into a rut, teaching their students the same way they’ve been doing for years. But this can be boring to students who are “digital natives.” This course will show you simple ways to break out of the traditional lecture-and-paper model, no matter the discipline, and instead teach lessons by listening to podcasts and having students create their own shows using free online tools.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Solve Legal Issues on Social Media
Gain an understanding of your rights and responsibilities when it comes to copyright, fair use and defamation on social media. Everyone’s a publisher now. Whether your company has a whole social media team or one person with a smart phone, you have to stay within your own lane on the information highway. It’s crucial to understand the dos and don’ts of copyright and libel law before posting. Learn how you can say everything you want and need to say without being exposed to legal risks.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: $19
Use Google Apps to Workflow Like a Pro
Learn how to measure impact in journalism and why it’s becoming a valuable and necessary skill in today’s newsrooms. Set yourself apart by knowing not only how to do work that drives real-world change, but also how to make sure that change gets noticed. Learn how to tell the story of your reporting just as effectively as you tell others’ stories.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: $19
DigitalEd Panel: How to Get Better Video Metrics
Are you putting more resources into video? As publishers increase the time they spend producing content for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other video platforms, they need better insights into what works and what doesn’t. This online panel will include a discussion by top publishers who are at the forefront of using video metrics to drive better engagement with their audience. We’ll discuss the reliability of video metrics and how to go beyond basic view counts to metrics such as over- and underperformance, recirculation and benchmarking. We’ll also hear tricks that leading publishers use to extract the most value out of the analytics tools they use in their own organizations.
Producer: MediaShift, sponsored by Parse.ly
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: Free
How to Measure Impact in Journalism
Learn how to measure impact in journalism and why it’s becoming a valuable and necessary skill in today’s newsrooms. Set yourself apart by knowing not only how to do work that drives real-world change, but also how to make sure that change gets noticed. Learn how to tell the story of your reporting just as effectively as you tell others’ stories.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online at BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Use Instagram as a Reporting Tool
With more than 600 million people on Instagram, this popular photo-sharing platform has become a powerful tool for journalists around the world. My Instagram followers tagged along with me as I reported stories for PRI’s The World and the BBC from mountain villages in Nepal, truck yards in Pakistan, the multi-cultural neighborhoods of South Africa, and more. In this course, you’ll learn the principles of using Instagram to report and photograph stories in the field. Whether you’re covering a local protest or trekking on a glacier with scientists, Instagram can help you generate interest in your story before your final report airs or goes to press.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
Snapchat for Journalists and Storytellers
Snapchat has become a legitimate distribution outlet for the media, including by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Vox, Mashable, BuzzFeed and many more. This training will explain why Snapchat is here to stay — and how journalists and storytellers can use it to strengthen their audience engagement.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Get the Most Out of Content Analytics
Do you want to get the most out of your analytics? Not sure where to start? A majority of digital media professionals don’t even have a common definition of audience engagement within their organization. This training will give you an overview of ways to get the most out of your analytics—starting with the best ways to define audience engagement. There’s also a chance for one-to-one feedback from the instructor.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Clean Up Your Audio in Video Production
Learn a few easy tips on how to clean up your audio using any microphones and noise reduction. Good video deserves good audio whether it is for TV or the web. This webinar will attempt to show broadcasters and reporters a few tips on gathering clean audio and a few tips on cleaning up audio that may have background “hiss” or “hum.” It’s hard to hear these with the human ear but a microphone picks up all, so don’t let a bad mic or bad mic placement ruin an otherwise great video production. This webinar is designed for anyone from the novice to the professional filmmaker and video creator.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
How to Launch a Killer Newsletter
Newsletter expert Jacqueline Boltik, who helped develop projects such as Ann Friedman’s Weekly and the LA Times’ newsletters and journalism professor Daniela Gerson, who recently created Migratory Notes, break down what you need to know to make your newsletter take off. Newsletters are the most direct way to build an audience, and are expanding. The Skimm, the Post Most, Lenny Letter, LA Times’ Essential Californian, #awesomewomen are just a few examples of the varied forms in which they are developing.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
Facebook Live for Journalists
In the changing world of social media, Facebook Live is the new big thing. Facebook’s own algorithm favors this live element, drawing more viewers and followers to your page. But, how can journalists use it effectively to get past the “gimmick” idea and make it something useful for viewers and for journalists? We’ll explore some of the best practices to maximize use and effectiveness of Facebook live for journalists and media organizations alike.
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $19
Building Trust on Facebook
How can journalists stand out in a minefield of misinformation? See what 14 newsrooms learned when they used their social platforms to experiment with trust-building strategies. We’ll show you what they tried, what worked for different kinds of newsrooms and what totally fell flat.
Producer: Poynter News University
Place: Online
Price: Free
Getting Started With 360-Degree Video
Been seeing all those great 360° news stories but don’t know where to start? Let us help. News organizations across the world have adopted 360° technology in their reporting process. From breaking news to documentaries, newsrooms are bringing their readers and viewers closer to the story. Don’t let those pricey 360° video rigs intimidate you. Getting started with immersive storytelling is easier than you think. This training will walk you through the process of choosing the right equipment, from camera to rigging gear, planning your shoot and knowing if 360° video works for your story. You will learn how 360° videos are edited and how to pick the right platform to host your story.
Place: Online with BigMarker
Producer: MediaShift
Price: $19
Savvy Digital Journalism: Best Practices for Writing for the Web
Master the basics of digital journalism. This course is for both novice journalists who want to lay the groundwork as a digital writer, as well as seasoned writers who may be shifting from print to web.
Place: Online
Producer: MediaBistro
Price: $129
Skills in 60: Instagram Marketing Starter Kit
Get Instagram savvy and build your brand! In just one hour, this course will teach you how to effectively market your Instagram presence by crafting visually creative content, analyze key metrics to grow your audience and navigate the ever-changing social media landscape.
Place: Online
Producer: MediaBistro
Price: $49
Infographics and Visual Data
When combined with a compelling narrative, infographics are one of the fastest and most effective ways to help viewers make connections and grasp complex topics. This course will teach you how to conceptualize, design, and execute infographics using free and simple tools.
Place: Online
Producer: MediaBistro
Price: $129
How to Build and Teach an Online Course
New technology and tools are transforming the learning experience and creating new opportunities — and challenges — for educators at high schools, community colleges, and four-year universities. In this online training, you’ll learn how to organize a course and plan modules in a learning management system — whether you’re transitioning an existing course or starting one from scratch. You’ll also get a chance to try out tech tools to enhance the online educational experience, understand how to develop relationships with students in an online environment and discover new techniques for creating robust discussion among students in the class.
Place: online
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Price: $19
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 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? This session will help you utilize analytics to learn from your audience and find ways to build on successes.
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: Online
Price: $19
How to Make News Bots Work For You
Robot journalism is one of the year’s hot topics as more media brands are experimenting with the automated delivery of news on mobile. Some bots are completely automated services that mimic a normal text conversation, but most involve some human intervention. In this online training, John Keefe, Senior Editor for Data News & Journalism Technology at WNYC, will explain how bots work and how journalists can use them to enhance their reporting and improve efficiency.
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift and CUNYJ+
Place: Online
Price: $19
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
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
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: 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
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
Design Thinking: Story Design and Testing
Design thinking is a people-centered approach to problem solving that encourages collaborative brainstorming and diverse ideation through systematic strategies and processes. Used in a variety of fields, from product design to web development, design thinking serves as a powerful model for flexible and dynamic critical thinking that puts the audience/user at the center of idea generation. In this session, Dr. Palilonis will share a number of design thinking strategies and explain how they can be used by communication and media professionals to inspire innovative, engaging approaches to storytelling. Dr. Palilonis will also share how she has used design thinking in a number of diverse projects, from working with USA Volleyball to promote the growth of boys’ and men’s volleyball nationwide, to developing a digital literacy curriculum for K-3 students.
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: Online at Bigmarker
Price: $19
How to Become a Mobile Ninja in the Field
We’re past the “Oh look! You can do journalism with a smartphone!” phase of mobile journalism. We know that using mobile devices gives us mobility, a production office in the field and a way to generate content quickly from the scene. Unfortunately, there are increasing demands for on-the-scene content to feed the social media machine. But every piece of content tweeted is time lost reporting. This training will show you how to use various mobile tools while reporting to quickly generate interesting direct-to-social content – without taking away reporting time. Each of the tools and techniques featured requires less than 90 seconds to create content that goes up to social media and lets you get back to reporting.
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: Online
Price: $19
Facebook Live for Journalists
In the changing world of social media, Facebook Live is the new big thing. Facebook’s own algorithm favors this live element, drawing more viewers and followers to your page. But, how can journalists use it effectively to get past the “gimmick” idea and make it something useful for viewers and for journalists? We’ll explore some of the best practices to maximize use and effectiveness of Facebook live for journalists and media organizations alike.
Producer: DigitalEd at MediaShift
Place: Online at Bigmarker
Price: $19
Transmedia Storytelling in Journalism
The mediascape of the 21st century is both a wicked problem and an unlimited opportunity for journalists. At the same time that powerful new storytelling tools have emerged our once-captive audiences have scattered into a dispersed mediascape. We can tell compelling stories like never before. But how do we get those stories in front of the publics that need them? A transmedia story unfolds in multiple media forms and across many media channels in an expansive rather than redundant way. This training will examine how Hollywood, Madison Avenue and journalism organizations like National Geographic and The Marshall Project use it to tell better and more complex stories and to reach audiences on the media they already use.
Producer: DigitalEd
Place: Online
Price: $19
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, a founding member of the Transborder Media storytelling collective and a social media consultant. Follow her on Twitter @biancafortis.
