Tag Archives: training

I’m delivering a 3 day workshop on scraping for journalists in January

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From January 23-25 I’ll be delivering a 3 day workshop on scraping in London at The Centre for Investigative Journalism. You don’t need any knowledge of scraping (automatically collecting information from multiple webpages or documents) or programming to take part.

Scraping has been used to report stories ranging from hard news items like “Half of GP surgeries open for under eight hours a day” to lighter stories in arts and culture such as “Movie Trilogies Get Worse with Each Film. Book Trilogies Get Better“.

By the end of the workshop you will be able to use scraping tools (without programming) and have the basis of the skills needed to write your own, more advanced and powerful, scrapers. You will also be able to communicate with programmers on relevant projects and think about editorial ideas for using scrapers.

A full outline of the course can be found on the Centre for Investigative Journalism website, where bookings can also be made, including discounts for freelancers and students.

Free investigation training for independent journalists and publishers

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CIJ logo

On August 17-18 the Centre for Investigative Journalism is organising some free training workshops for independent community based journalism outlets in Birmingham (and yes, I’ll be helping too).

They write:

Through investigative training; advice and guidance in journalistic practice; and support in building regional networks and sustainable business models we aim to revive local and community based reporting to address the democratic deficit left by a decades-long decline in budgets, staff and overall plurality across the UK local media industry.

The new programme hopes to help independent publishers improve their ability to gain access to information and investigate issues affecting their communities, and to share their findings in the public interest.

Some of the reasons behind the training include:

  • to encourage greater government and corporate accountability at a local level
  • to support democratic scrutiny
  • and to reinforce civil society from the ground up

Birmingham isn’t the only region this will be happening, but it will be the first. If you are interested in being involved, please contact us at tom@tcij.org.

Due to the remit of this project CIJ are only able to provide training to journalists working with a specific community/regional focus on a part-time or voluntary basis. The project has been funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

Newsquest charging students for a byline? They could at least sell it properly

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spaceman

What value do you put on space?

Newsquest are charging students £120 for a byline. The NUJ is appalled. Universities are angry. Journalists are outraged.

And no one is surprised.

https://twitter.com/dylsharpe/status/565136138068033536

What is perhaps most telling about the move is what it says about Newsquest’s commercial nous.  Continue reading →

SEO recruiters look for journalists as Google gets fussier

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content marketing trend

Searches for ‘content marketing’ according to Google Trends. Since February the term has been at the peak of its popularity [Tweet this image]

In a guest post for OJB, Nick Chowdrey looks at why increasing numbers of SEO agencies are hiring journalists.

As online marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) practices have evolved, journalists have become increasingly sought-after by the agencies that compete to improve their clients’ rankings.

“For a long time there was a very poor practice in online marketing,” says Joe Sharp, Head of SEO at Hearst Magazines. “Generic advertorials were duplicated across multiple sites with strategic links engineered to increase SEO value. Continue reading →

Training: scraping in the Netherlands

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Scraping for Journalists ebookI’m delivering a course in scraping in Utrecht in the Netherlands on April 2. The booking page with more details about location etc is here – a broad breakdown below:

  • Scraping for journalism: ideas and examples
  • Scraping basics: finding structure in HTML and URLs; what’s possible with programming
  • Simple scraping jobs: how to write a basic scraper in 5 minutes
  • Scraping tools: Outwit Hub and Import.io
  • How to scrape dozens of public webpages
  • Scraping databases with empty searches
  • How to understand scrapers on Scraperwiki: Scraping PDFs, lists of URLs, and databases with specific searches

That free online data journalism course I’m involved in

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I’m happy to announce that I’ll be part of the delivery team for a free data journalism course online early next year that is being hosted by The European Journalism Centre. Continue reading →

Free ebook: Citizen Video – training and engaging citizens in video journalism

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Videographer Franzi Baehrle has published an ebook documenting lessons in delivering video training to non-journalists.

The ebook was part of her final project for the MA Online Journalism at Birmingham City University, and based on her experiences of working with communities online and offline in Birmingham, with the Guardian Media Group’s n0tice project, the Birmingham Mail’s digital team, and independently.

I forgot to blog about it at the time it was published last Autumn, but better late than never: it’s an excellent piece of work, and well worth reading.

Data visualisation training

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If you’re interested in data visualisation I’m delivering a training course on November 7 with the excellent Caroline Beavon. Here’s what we’re covering:

  • Pick the right chart for your story – against a deadline
  • Mapping tricks and techniques: using Fusion Tables and other tools to map Olympic torchbearers
  • Picking the right data to visualise
  • Visualisation tips for free chart tools
  • Avoiding common visualisation mistakes
  • Create an infographic with Tableau and Illustrator
  • Making data interactive

More details here. Places can be booked here.

Data journalism training – places available

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If you want to learn some basic or intermediate data journalism skills I’m running two single-day courses next week, with places still available.

The first is Introduction to data journalism: taming the numbers on Tuesday September 11.

The second is Intermediate data journalism: take data to the next level on Thursday September 13.

They’re being run with Journalism.co.uk and you can book places on either course through their site. If you book on both days you save £50.

Journalism Reloaded – What journalists need for the future

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In a guest post Alexandra Stark, Swiss journalist and Head of Studies at MAZ – the Swiss School of Journalism, argues that it’s time for journalists to take action on business models for supporting journalism. Stark proposes a broadened set of skills and a new structure to enable greater involvement from journalists, while also fostering further teaching of such skills.

Ask a journalist if his or her job will remain important in the future: “Of course,” he or she will answer while privately thinking, “What a stupid question!” Try changing this stupid question just a bit, asking: “How will it be possible that you’ll still be able to do a good job in the future?” It’s likely you won’t receive an answer at all. Continue reading →