Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. Social Media: Understanding the basics
- What is social media and why it matters
- Exercise #1: Defining social media
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways journalists use social networks
2. Getting to grips with Twitter
- The Twitter Audit
- The Twitter Glossary
- Exercise #2: How to Tweet
3. Social media in action
- When to post online: how consumption habits are changing
- Eleven examples of social media in action
- The Audit: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the rest
- Exercise #3: Creating a social media campaign
- How to manage your social media footprint all in one place
4. How to blog
- Blogging basics
- What kind of blogger are you? Introducing three archetypes
- Establishing a tone of voice
- How to get noticed
- Exercise #4: Writing a blog post
- Blogging dos and don’ts
- Final thoughts: Eleven social media tips
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: via Shutterstock.com / Peshkova and Jon Bernstein
]]>In town for a team meeting, Charles Sennott and Gary Knight, founders of GroundTruth, shared their commitment to training up-and-coming talent in global correspondents in an age when digital media seems to cast doubt on the reliability of political news.
Calvin Sims, seasoned US foreign correspondent and chair for the evening, identified a ‘tectonic shift’ in global politics as a ‘pandemic of populism’ now affects elections in the UK, Europe, and US.
The ensuing debate asked how successful mainstream and off-beat media channels are in producing meaningful political analysis for a generation typically craving entertainment.
The panel (left to right): socio-political journalist and author Laurie Penny, eminent American broadcast journalist Michael Goldfarb (The New York Times, NPR), GroundTruth Co-founder and Managing Editor Kevin Grant, and – joining us stateside via Skype – freelance Bloomberg journalist Matt Negrin.
Election as spectacle
Sims’ began by asking how appropriate it is to engage with humour in covering this election.
A visibly excited Matt Negrin enthused that he is likely the only person left in New York not yet weary of wall-to-wall media coverage of the election, ‘It’s so much fun. The race is close enough that it’s still interesting to cover.’
Grant went someway in agreeing, expressing the collective surprise many in the media have felt witnessing Donald Trump’s continued extremist statements even after being selected as the GOP’s candidate. ‘Trump is not normal, he has never been normal his entire life,’ he said, ‘The only way to cover this race is to be a little bit stupid,’ arguing a level of incredulity is helpful for real analysis.
Penny echoed the feelings of some in the audience saying she was ‘disturbed’ by the ‘excitement angle’ expressed. ‘It’s a real mistake to see this as fun in any way. Politics is a bad drug,’ she said, distasteful of a media frenzy that lacks sober questioning.
Goldfarb countered, it is essential the media depict Trump ‘as the threat to democracy that he is.’ The broadcaster went on to draw comparisons with the recent Brexit result and the imminent American decision, saying ‘resentment has nowhere to go’ for young angry men displaced from traditional ways of life, leading to extreme choices at the polling station.
Language can be unthinkingly recycled by media outlets without real discussion of its meaning – particularly in relation to voter demographics. ‘Critique of media is abysmal in America,’ said Goldfarb.
Several short videos produced by GroundTruth show that humour can capture an audience and convey real political information – as seen in a ‘Fact-Checking’ sketch with memorable dialogue.
Social media and youth in a digital age
‘The digital space was supposed to make things more democratic’ – and yet often a paucity of voices seems to dominate the debate, even online. ‘What should the media consumer do?’ asked Calvin.
Acknowledging that ‘journalism is in the grip of a massive financial crisis,’ Penny argued the media has not found a way of monetising meaningful critique for a mass audience.
Grant held that the media still has a way to go, and often ‘doesn’t get to the heart of policy matters,’ partially because ‘there’s no clicks in unemployment stories’. Media Matters found that roughly 0% of US TV coverage of the election had to do with policy.
Social media is growing in importance as an ‘alternative’ to ‘the shouting match on TV’ for many millennials seeking political discussion, according to Grant.
New opportunities are emerging on digital platforms, and there is hope yet for intelligent nuance in the ‘crass, uncivil discourse’ (in the words of Sennott) which election coverage so often appears to be.
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. Social Media: Understanding the basics
- What is social media and why it matters
- Exercise #1: Defining social media
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways journalists use social networks
2. Getting to grips with Twitter
- The Twitter Audit
- The Twitter Glossary
- Exercise #2: How to Tweet
3. Social media in action
- When to post online: how consumption habits are changing
- Eleven examples of social media in action
- The Audit: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the rest
- Exercise #3: Creating a social media campaign
- How to manage your social media footprint all in one place
4. How to blog
- Blogging basics
- What kind of blogger are you? Introducing three archetypes
- Establishing a tone of voice
- How to get noticed
- Exercise #4: Writing a blog post
- Blogging dos and don’ts
- Final thoughts: Eleven social media tips
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: via Shutterstock.com / Peshkova and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will cover the following:
1. Social Media: Understanding the basics
- What is social media and why it matters
- Exercise #1: Defining social media
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways journalists use social networks
2. Getting to grips with Twitter
- The Twitter Audit
- The Twitter Glossary
- Exercise #2: How to Tweet
3. Social media in action
- When to post online: how consumption habits are changing
- Eleven examples of social media in action
- The Audit: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and the rest
- Exercise #3: Creating a social media campaign
- How to manage your social media footprint all in one place
4. How to blog
- Blogging basics
- What kind of blogger are you? Introducing three archetypes
- Establishing a tone of voice
- How to get noticed
- Exercise #4: Writing a blog post
- Blogging dos and don’ts
- Final thoughts: Eleven social media tips
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: via Shutterstock.com / Peshkova and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
How to Tweet: A social media primer
This session will teach journalists – in-house and freelance – and communications professionals how to raise their profile, extend their reach and understand how to integrate social media into their newsgathering, research and campaigning.
This interactive session will cover the following and more:
- Social media: understanding the basics
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways social media can help your journalism: crowd sourcing, fact checking, taste testing, finding eyewitnesses and more
- The social media audit: from Twitter and Facebook to Google+, LinkedIn and beyond
- When to post: how online consumption habits are changing
- How to manage your social footprint all in one place
- How to get noticed and grow your follower count legitimately
- Eleven social media tips
How to Blog . . . For reputation, profile and reach
In this session, Bernstein will explore the basics of blogging, the dos and don’ts, reveal who are the masters of the craft, and layout the editorial techniques – as well as the tactics and tools – you’ll need for success.
You’ll cover a range of subjects including:
- Blogging basics
- When is a blog post not a blog post?
- What kind of blogger are you? The polemicist, the educator, the analyst, the observer, the magpie and more
- How to establish a tone of voice
- Frequency and variety: defining a rhythm to suit you and the reader
- How to get noticed
- How to grow your traffic
- Blogging dos and don’ts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: via Shutterstock.com / Peshkova and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125.00
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
How to Tweet: A social media primer
This session will teach journalists – in-house and freelance – and communications professionals how to raise their profile, extend their reach and understand how to integrate social media into their newsgathering, research and campaigning.
This interactive session will cover the following and more:
- Social media: understanding the basics
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways social media can help your journalism: crowd sourcing, fact checking, taste testing, finding eyewitnesses and more
- The social media audit: from Twitter and Facebook to Google+, LinkedIn and beyond
- When to post: how online consumption habits are changing
- How to manage your social footprint all in one place
- How to get noticed and grow your follower count legitimately
- Eleven social media tips
How to Blog . . . For reputation, profile and reach
In this session, Bernstein will explore the basics of blogging, the dos and don’ts, reveal who are the masters of the craft, and layout the editorial techniques – as well as the tactics and tools – you’ll need for success.
You’ll cover a range of subjects including:
- Blogging basics
- When is a blog post not a blog post?
- What kind of blogger are you? The polemicist, the educator, the analyst, the observer, the magpie and more
- How to establish a tone of voice
- Frequency and variety: defining a rhythm to suit you and the reader
- How to get noticed
- How to grow your traffic
- Blogging dos and don’ts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: Cienpies Design / Shutterstock.com and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £125.00
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
How to Tweet: A social media primer
This session will teach journalists – in-house and freelance – and communications professionals how to raise their profile, extend their reach and understand how to integrate social media into their newsgathering, research and campaigning.
This interactive session will cover the following and more:
- Social media: understanding the basics
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways social media can help your journalism: crowd sourcing, fact checking, taste testing, finding eyewitnesses and more
- The social media audit: from Twitter and Facebook to Google+, LinkedIn and beyond
- When to post: how online consumption habits are changing
- How to manage your social footprint all in one place
- How to get noticed and grow your follower count legitimately
- Eleven social media tips
How to Blog . . . For reputation, profile and reach
In this session, Bernstein will explore the basics of blogging, the dos and don’ts, reveal who are the masters of the craft, and layout the editorial techniques – as well as the tactics and tools – you’ll need for success.
You’ll cover a range of subjects including:
- Blogging basics
- When is a blog post not a blog post?
- What kind of blogger are you? The polemicist, the educator, the analyst, the observer, the magpie and more
- How to establish a tone of voice
- Frequency and variety: defining a rhythm to suit you and the reader
- How to get noticed
- How to grow your traffic
- Blogging dos and don’ts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: Cienpies Design / Shutterstock.com and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £150.00
Members £120
Learn how user-generated and open source content can boost your journalism. Journalism is changing. Are you keeping pace?
This one-day workshop will help you apply traditional journalism to an interconnected digital environment. With this aim in mind, participants will learn the skills used by intelligence agencies of search and discovery, data collection, source verification, understanding networks and data analysis.
The aim of this workshop is to improve awareness through open intelligence. You will be taught how to:
- Choose appropriate tools to effectively monitor the Internet and user-generated content
- Identify possible leads
- Discover tools to dig quickly and deeper into a source or lead
- Understand and analyse trends
- And verify sources and contents of user-generated online material.
Step-by-step, hands-on exercises will engage the journalist in you, and you’ll gain practical online investigation techniques.
This course requires a computer and accounts to the following services: Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Please ensure that you have a laptop available and have created the above accounts in advance of the course.
About the trainers
This workshop will be led by trainers from SecDev, a company which specialises in open intelligence and builds search and discovery infrastructure, conducting expert analysis on data uncovered. SecDev has delivered training for media organisations such as BBC and Frontline Club as well as various Canadian and US government departments.
Freelance/Student £125.00
Members £100
In the fast-paced evolution of digital journalism, it is essential to get to grips with the social media landscape around you. Pioneering website editor Jon Bernstein will lead a day-long workshop to teach you how to get the most out of your online tools.
From understanding the basics of social media and their applications in journalism, to the fine art of online editing, this workshop is ideal for established and emerging journalists alike. It will also appeal to anyone in a communications role who truly wants to understand the power of social media.
The workshop will be divided into two parts:
How to Tweet: A social media primer
This session will teach journalists – in-house and freelance – and communications professionals how to raise their profile, extend their reach and understand how to integrate social media into their newsgathering, research and campaigning.
This interactive session will cover the following and more:
- Social media: understanding the basics
- Two tales from the newsroom that demonstrate the power of social
- Six ways social media can help your journalism: crowd sourcing, fact checking, taste testing, finding eyewitnesses and more
- The social media audit: from Twitter and Facebook to Google+, LinkedIn and beyond
- When to post: how online consumption habits are changing
- How to manage your social footprint all in one place
- How to get noticed and grow your follower count legitimately
- Eleven social media tips
How to Blog . . . For reputation, profile and reach
In this session, Bernstein will explore the basics of blogging, the dos and don’ts, reveal who are the masters of the craft, and layout the editorial techniques – as well as the tactics and tools – you’ll need for success.
You’ll cover a range of subjects including:
- Blogging basics
- When is a blog post not a blog post?
- What kind of blogger are you? The polemicist, the educator, the analyst, the observer, the magpie and more
- How to establish a tone of voice
- Frequency and variety: defining a rhythm to suit you and the reader
- How to get noticed
- How to grow your traffic
- Blogging dos and don’ts
About the trainer
Jon Bernstein is an award-winning journalist, editor and digital strategist. He was deputy editor, then digital director, at the New Statesman; multimedia editor at Channel 4 News; ran the Channel 4 FactCheck website during the 2005 general election; editor-in-chief of Directgov, working in the Cabinet Office’s eGovernment Unit; and editor-in-chief of dot com start up and technology website silicon.com. In 2011, he was named Website Editor of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors for Newstatesman.com.
Images: Cienpies Design / Shutterstock.com and Jon Bernstein
]]>Freelance/Student £150.00
Members £120
[user generated content: the source and the story]
Disruptive technology is transforming journalism. Revolutions are tweeted. Drug lords and hitmen have Facebook fans. Wars are waged with cyber attacks. Surveillance and espionage have never been so widespread or easy to conduct.
The social fabric of cyberspace is as important as the physical world. From commerce to sex, every interaction is mirrored online. Traditional media feel left behind by bloggers, social media, and the race into cyberspace – but that race has just begun. The next-generation news organisation will be agile and smart. It will apply the trusted techniques of traditional journalism to the online world. Speed is just as important as accuracy – and both can be won.
The SecDev training programme considers how journalism has changed, and offers solutions for media professionals to break the news without compromising credibility and integrity in a real-time digital age.
With emerging digital tools and methods, journalists can:
• Discover the what as it happens
• Determine the where – globally – with speed
• Find and engage the who directly – anywhere in the world
• Understand the why, putting it quickly into a multifaceted context
• Access the how through an unlimited amount of available resources
• Verify the source with precision and efficiency
All aspects of traditional journalism still apply, but are supercharged in the digital age of media. It’s more than counting tweets, trending social media or data-driven journalism: it’s the future news environment – and it’s here today.
8:45 – 9:00 REGISTRATION
9:00 – 9:15 WELCOME MESSAGE
9:15 – 10:00 WHY DOES SOCIAL MEDIA MATTER? Presenting the ways in which social media has become the news, this information session considers how journalism has changed as a result and what media professionals can do to break the news without compromising credibility in a digital age.
10:00 – 10:45 KNOW THY THREAT Avoid being a target. Learn how to quickly distinguish fact from fiction in an online environment. This session covers issues related to cyber espionage such as what devices are easily compromised and tips for secure communications.
10:45 – 11:00 BREAK
11:00 – 12:00 BREAK THAT STORY Tools and methods for using social media to get to the story first with a structured and iterative drill designed for journalists to reinforce analytics techniques and approaches.
12:00 – 13:00 LUNCH
13:45 – 14:30 KNOW THY SOURCE Techniques and methods for verifying sources, focusing on verification of cross domain sources, culminating in a hands- on drill to test and validate core skills of participants.
14:30 – 17:00 HANDS ON PRACTICUM Let’s find the news! A breaking news simulation exercise where students will be challenged to apply their new skills in a real-time scenario, working as a team.
The trainer:
Rafal Rohozinski is co-founder and principal of the SecDev Group, a recognised leader in complex analytics. He spent 17 years working in an operational capacity in 37 countries including conflict zones in the former Soviet Union, the Middle East and Africa. He is also a co-founder and past CEO of Psiphon, he served as director of the Advanced Network Research Group University of Cambridge, is the co-founder of the OpenNet Initiative and Information Warfare Monitor, and co-author of the Ghostnet study of Chinese cyber-espionage. He has written many publications and is a frequent commentator on cyber security and cyber war.
The workshop will be followed by an event with Rafal Rohozinski on Tuesday 20 May at 7:00 PM, for details see here.
This course requires a computer and accounts to the following services: Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Please ensure that you have a laptop available and have created the above accounts in advance of the course.
]]>