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, 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 events in the “featured event” slot are paid placements.
FEATURED TRAININGS
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; Sam Han, Washington Post; Sara Sarasohn, NPR.
This free panel is sponsored by Acquia, the digital experience company.
Date and time: March 2, 2016; 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: FREE
MARCH 2016
Poynter Producer Project
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. 7 – Apr. 8, 2016
Producer: Poynter’s NewsU
Place: online and at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida
Price: $299 plus travel expenses
SEO in 2016 – What Works Now
Search engine optimization (“SEO”) has evolved immensely over the past several years. Are you and your organization keeping up? More importantly, have you fully exhausted the potential that SEO provides? In this training, you’ll learn the secrets of SEO: what works and what doesn’t, what you should be measuring, what tools to use, where trouble looms and untapped potential lies, where search engines and the industry are headed, and much more.
Date and time: Mar. 8-9, 2016, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Producer: American Marketing Assoication
Place: San Diego Marriott – Mission Valley
Price: $1,645 for members; $1,945 for non-members
Advanced Social Media Analytics
You’re using social media, but do you know if it’s working? This one-hour webinar will help you be more effective with your social media efforts by digging deep into the analytics provided by the major social media platforms and crunching the numbers in new ways. Find out where you’re going wrong and what you’re doing right then use those insights to sculpt your overall social media and content strategy.
Date and time: Mar. 15, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
CUNY J+ 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, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 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
IRE Phoenix Data Watchdog Workshop
IRE is bringing its highly rated Watchdog Workshop to Phoenix with a twist: This workshop will focus on data-driven investigations. This training will offer several of our core sessions that will improve your ability to think about data in your everyday work and find data and other information on the Web quickly. In addition, this workshop will provide you with a foundation of using spreadsheets in your reporting with hands-on training in Excel. Attendees will spend half the day in a lecture setting and the other half in hands-on training. Computers will be provided.
Date and time: Mar. 19-20, 2016
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Place: Arizona State University
Price: $55 for professionals; $25 for students
Podcasting: Telling Digital Stories in Sound
In this two-day certificate-earning course, you’ll learn the art of creating and producing distinctive audio podcasts. You’ll practice hands-on recording and editing to develop your own podcast with direction from award winning radio journalist and podcaster, Ben Manilla.
Date and time: Mar. 21-22, 2016
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley
Price: $845 until Feb. 22
Data Visualization for Storytellers
Data Visualization for Storytellers is a two-day, hands-on certificate program focused on communicating complex information with visually appealing charts, graphs and maps. Participants will learn to create a clearer, more meaningful picture of complex information and publicly available data, tell stories with interactive maps, and create beautiful and effective graphs and charts.
Date and time: Mar. 22-23, 2016
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley
Price: $795 until Feb. 22
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, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PT
Producer: Berkeley Advanced Media Institute
Place: Graduate School of Journalism, University of California Berkeley, near San Francisco.
Price: $845 until Feb. 5
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. Information on registration, fees and schedule available here.
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.
CUNY J+ 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, 6:30 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $25
APRIL 2016
CUNY J+ Photography Workshop with Maggie Steber
CUNY J+ is proud to host a week-long photography workshop led by acclaimed documentary photographer Maggie Steber. This workshop is about visual storytelling and how to make powerful new kinds of images to tell personal stories or document human issues. Participants will hear Maggie share her experience, look at a variety of work from other visual storytellers, experiment with outdoor photo shoots, and practice editing and sequencing.
Date and time: Apr. 4-8, 2016
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $1200
APME’s NewsTrain: Digital Skills for Journalists, Lincoln, Nebraska Edition
For just $75, get a full day of digital training, including meals, at APME’s NewsTrain workshop in Lincoln, Nebraska, on April 9. Sessions include maximizing social media for branding and engagement, getting started with data-driven enterprise reporting, writing for mobile, planning for breaking news, and making smart choices in digital storytelling. Trainers include Theodore Kim, assistant news editor, and Daniel Victor, senior staff editor, at The New York Times; and Matt Wynn, developer and watchdog reporter at the Omaha World-Herald. Through March 12, discounted $129 hotel rooms are available an eight-minute walk from the workshop site. Apply for diversity scholarships by March 8.
Date and time: Apr. 9, 2016, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Producer: Associated Press Media Editors (APME)
Place: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Price: $75
CUNY J+ 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, 10 a.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $199
Great Mobile Tools for Reporting
In this one-hour webinar with digital journalist and educator Mike Reilley, you’ll learn about easy-to-use tools that will help you enhance your storytelling across platforms and deepen audience engagement. Refine your tool set as you get up to speed on the latest multimedia and mobile tools to help you capture, work with, edit and distribute media in new ways. Plus, get tips on how to use each for best results.
Date and time: Apr. 19, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
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. 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, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $599
MAY 2016
How to Automate Social Media
Megan Calcote, who manages social media for the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, will lead this training on how to automate social media. More information to come.
Date and time: May 3, 2016, 1:00 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT
Producer: MediaShift
Place: Online with BigMarker
Price: $39
APME’s NewsTrain: Digital Skills for Journalists, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Edition
For just $75, get two full days of digital training, including meals, at APME’s NewsTrain workshop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 6-7. Sessions include maximizing your social media for personal branding and audience engagement; using social media for sourcing, including verifying user-generated content; making smart choices in digital storytelling; planning for breaking news on multiple platforms; writing for mobile; using audience analytics to get your stories read; and shooting compelling news video and photos with your smartphone. Kathy Kieliszewski, Detroit Free Press visuals director and four-time Emmy Award winner, will teach the video and photo sessions. Discounted hotel rooms will be available. Apply for diversity scholarships by April 6.
Date and time: May 6, 2016, 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; and May 7, 2016, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Producer: Associated Press Media Editors (APME)
Place: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Price: $75
CUNY J+ 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, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $199
IRE Toronto Watchdog Workshop
This training will offer several of our core sessions that will improve your ability to find information on the Web quickly, and point you to key documents and data that will help you add depth to your daily work and produce quick-hit enterprise stories. In addition, this workshop will give you tips on bulletproofing stories, digging deeper on the Web with social media, search engines and much more. This workshop will focus on issues on shared interest between the U.S. and Canada. These sessions are designed for reporters, editors, and producers from small, midsize and large publications, TV, radio stations, Web-only news sites and news blogs. Freelancers, students and journalism educators are also encouraged to attend.
Date and time: May 14-15, 2016
Producer: Investigative Reporters & Editors
Place: Ryerson University, Toronto
Price: $55 for professionals; $25 for students
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: Columbia Journalism School
Place: Columbia Journalism School, New York City
Price: $14,316
JUNE 2016
CUNY J+ 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, 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET
Producer: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Place: CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, New York City
Price: $499
Xposure High School Journalism Workshop
The program seeks students with interests in news writing, editing, photography and journalism as a career. During the workshop, students gain important skills through classes, seminars, educational field trips and work with WKU journalism professors and other professional journalists in a learn-by-doing environment. Students report, write, edit and shoot photos for stories published in a newspaper and posted on the workshop’s website. All high school students are welcome to apply, especially rising juniors and seniors.
Date and time: June 4-12, 2016
Producer: Western Kentucky University
Place: Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Price: Contact Chuck Clark for more information.
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, New York City
Price: $8,365 (includes tuition, room and board)
CSPA Summer Journalism Workshop
The annual Summer Journalism Workshop is a week-long conference offering sequences focused on either writing, editing, management or advanced design.
Date and time: June 19-24, 2016
Producer: Columbia Scholastic Pres Association
Place: Columbia University, New York City
Price: $795-$1195 per course
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, New York City
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, New York City
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)
2016 ASB Teacher Workshop
The original, tried and true, level-one broadcasting “camp” from ASB Workshops. Perfect for the first-time broadcast teacher, or a veteran who wants to recharge the batteries. It’s the perfect blend of theory and practice, with inspiring sessions in the morning, and challenging, hands-on assignments in the afternoons.
Date and time: July 10-15, 2016
Producer: The Academy of Scholastic Broadcasting
Place: Springfield, Missouri
Price: $450-$650
CSPA High School Journalism Workshop
CSPA Workshop graduates do more in 13 days than most people do all summer. Whether you’re an experienced student journalist, a beginner or simply a student interested in improving your writing skills, you’ll find the CSPA Workshop beneficial. It’s an opportunity not only to sharpen journalism skills but to become a better writer, to improve your time management and to learn how to communicate and cooperate with others in a professional environment. You also will learn cutting-edge digital skills to go along with the journalistic principles that are vital in any medium.
Date and time: July 10-22, 2016
Producer: California Scholastic Press Association
Place: Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Price: $1475
Broadcast Journalism Workshop
In this workshop, through study and hands-on practice, students are trained in the fundamental principles, techniques, and craft of contemporary journalism. This is accomplished through a combination of lecture, demonstration, in-class hands-on production, and the students’ own work. Each student produces news projects, shot with single-camera set-ups edited on Avid Media Composer. This intensive workshop provides a strong introduction to necessary digital and journalism skills.
Date and time: July 11 – Aug. 6, 2016
Producer: New York Film Academy
Place: New York City
Price: $3800
August 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: University of Oxford, UK
Price: £5520 (includes tuition, room and board)
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.