Track breaking news online using Twitter and similar tools: one-day course May 5, 2009

From the Sichuan earthquake to the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the US Airways plane that crashed in the Hudson River, Twitter has proven itself to as a source for breaking news. But how do you track it, filter it, make sense of it? How do you monitor news whenever and whereever it breaks online? This course will show you how.

Aimed at anyone who needs to understand how stories are propagated online and how to track them, this course will cover monitoring techniques using several popular social media tools and various methods of compiling that information online.

Course tutor: Graham Holliday
Date: Tuesday 5 May, 2009
Time: 10.00-17.00
Venue: The Frontline Club (near Paddington station)
Number of places: 8
Cost: £320 (+£48 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 blogs and social networking sites;
* advanced strategies for tracking "chatter" on blogs automatically;
* techniques for monitoring Twitter for breaking news;;
* tracking photographic and video output automatically;
* performing background research more effectively;
* filtering, sorting and prioritising the information flow using advanced online tools;
* setting up the online newsdesk in one place.

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
"The training course was really great. Graham explained very well how to better use the RSS tools and improve the following of a breaking news story online. It is an essential training for all the journalists, in order not to be overwhelmed by the amount of information, but to manage to only select what you need to know." Aurelien Viers, Chief Editor, citizenside.com

"An extremely useful course. An excellent, clear presentation. I was surprised how much we got through." Liam Clarke, Sunday Times Northern Ireland Editor

"Extremely useful - lots of tools I hadn't known about before. It was all interesting and even the more basic parts provided a useful reminder or revealed techniques I hadn't known. Thanks for a very inspiring day." Helen Dalby, NCJ Media

"Very useful for my work. Even though I was familiar with some of the tools, I didn't know many of the functions and techniques we were taught. A superb day overall - informative, useful, certainly a day well spent." David Higgerson, Head of Multimedia, Trinity Mirror Regionals

"The course covered topics in a comprehensive manner. Graham is very well informed, knows his subject well and has an effective teaching style." Trisha Andres, Journalism Associate, Press Association

"Responsive, good communicator, flexible, effective." Philip Lambert, Investor Dynamics

"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/