Track breaking news online - 1 day course November 21, 2008

Course tutor: Graham Holliday

Dates: Friday 21 November, 2008
Time: 10.00-17.00
Venue: London W2 (near Paddington station)
Number of places: 8
Cost: £320 (+£56 VAT) including lunch

When news breaks it increasingly breaks online. And more often than not, it breaks in places where there are no journalists. People on the ground with mobile phones, cameras and access to the internet are the eyewitnesses and the primary sources. Many of them use the internet to publish initial reports direct from the scene. Journalists can't afford to ignore this resource - but tracking breaking news online requires a different skillset. This course provides:

* an introduction to popular social media tools and how to use them;
* a deep understanding of the practical use of these tools with solid examples;
* strategies for tracking news as it breaks on multiple social media sites simultaneously.

It will cover key techniques for:

* blogging, microblogging, uploading pictures and video;
* tracking 4,500+ news sources;
* using RSS feeds and a feedreader;
* best practice for contacting sources discovered on social media websites;
* blogging breaking news effectively;
* monitoring microblogs;
* tracking photographic and video output;
* performing background research more effectively;
* organising the online newsdesk.

About Graham Holliday
Graham Holliday has worked as a journalist for 10 years, has six years' training experience and is a full-time freelancer.

He has worked in social media since 2002. He has twice been a finalist in the Bloggies and numerous other blog awards. His work for the Frontline Club blogs helped earn it a Media Guardian Innovation Award for Vaughan Smith's multimedia blog from the frontline in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

He previously worked as an editor at Scoopt, the world's first citizen journalism photo agency. He runs a monthly blogging workshop and has trained journalists and editors at the BBC, Nokia, MSN among many other companies. He blogs for the Guardian's Comment is free blog, The Observer Food Monthly blog, BBC GoodFood and the Frontline Club.

Book now
To book your place now and pay using debit/credit card, please visit: http://www.journalism.co.uk/36/45/

To book your place now and be invoiced for the amount, please visit: http://www.journalism.co.uk/36/44/

Testimonials
"Just wanted to say how very much I enjoyed the course on Saturday and how brilliantly you managed to convey such a ton of information. I will be recommending it highly to loads of mates." Dominique Jackson, Freelance writer.

"Just to say you were just brilliant and really opened the blog world to us." Duncan Raban, Creative Director, PA Photos

"Bloody fantastic course – my brain was hurting at the end! If there are going to be other courses later in the year, I’ll be recommending them to others." Jem Thomas, Defence Media Operations Centre, Media Training School

"I hope that we get to work together again as I found the day very useful." Mark Squires, director, Communications Social Media, Nokia Corporation

"Many thanks for your talk – it went down well – interesting and thought provoking – I wish we had a bit longer since there are so many issues here." Tom Evans, Content Manager, MSN Cars

Official Website: http://www.journalism.co.uk/36/43/74/