I’m psyched this week to start two free journalism courses online. You can take them too.
The first is a month-long Massive Open Online Course, or MOOC, from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin called “Social media for journalists.”
If you’re a journalist, public relations professional or handle social media for your company, this could be a helpful class. It’s open to all who have “an interest in learning about the basics of using social media for journalism.” No experience needed. So, pretty much, come on down.
I’ve never taken a MOOC before, so this is new to me. But a big attraction is this: The coursework is asynchronous, so you can do it at your own time and pace, the magical period otherwise known in my house as After The Kids Go To Sleep. Also, it’s free, and you can’t beat free with a stick.
The teachers are an assortment of folks that you’d normally have to pay an expensive conference registration to learn from:
Ryan Thornburg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sharif Durhams, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Craig Silverman, Spundge and Poynter’s Regret the Error
Daniel Victor, The New York Times
Amanda Zamora, ProPublica
There’s also a free online course this week through the Reynolds Center, a great resource for business journalists. The webinar is geared to reporters, freelancers and teachers. Participants have to hop online for an hour each day on Feb. 5 and 6.
Pulitzer winner Jacqui Banaszynski is teaching “Perfecting Personality Profiles.” She won the 1988 Pulitzer for “AIDS in the Heartland.”
Here’s the course description:
In the first hour of this lively two-part webinar, Pulitzer winner Jacqui Banaszynski will explore the characteristics of memorable and accurate profiles, as well as offer a range of profile approaches that can suit your purpose, publication and audience. In the second hour, on Feb. 6, she’ll dive more deeply into the reporting and writing techniques that can help any beat reporter pursue sparkling profiles.
Again, the price is right: free.
Did I mention you can learn from a Pulitzer winner for FREE? Here’s an interesting interview with her that looks back at her story.
You can register here. And here’s a list of all the upcoming training from the Reynolds Center.