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Journalism training and education for computer programmers

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University near Chicago is offering a great opportunity for computer programmers who are interested in journalism: A masters degree after a one-year immersion into journalism, reporting and publishing in the “real-world” application of education that Medill is famous for.

Full and partial scholarships are available.

Full details here.

Posted by MarkBriggs on Thursday, May 24, 2007
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Want to see how blogs have changed sports journalism?

Read this post by award-winning blogger Mike Sando (and my colleague at The News Tribune) that provides excellent analysis of the NFL’s new access policies for news media. Here’s an excerpt:

The NFL under commissioner Roger Goodell has taken steps to improve media access to league personnel. A recently adopted access policy requires teams to make available coaches, players and front-office people at regular intervals. The league has also relaxed its policy on sideline TV crews.

Now comes a policy headed in the other direction. This one seeks to monopolize league-oriented audio and video content on the Web. The league is limiting sites such as this one to 45 seconds of league audio and video per day, with no archiving beyond 24 hours. The league wants fans to visit only league Web sites for audio and video featuring players, coaches and other league personnel. Like many policies, this one will have unintended consequences.

Posted by MarkBriggs on Friday, May 18, 2007
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Multimedia storytelling course now available at NewsU

Training for multimedia storytelling has been hard to come by for anyone who couldn’t afford the time or money it takes to travel to a week-long course. Poynter’s NewsU is taking a stab at a more introductory and accessible approached with a 2-hour online course that anyone can take from anywhere - for free!

Check it out.

Posted by MarkBriggs on Wednesday, May 16, 2007
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New tutorial for Audacity

Many news reporters are using the free program Audacity to edit audio these days. Since it’s free, it doesn’t come with documentation. Thankfully, Mindy McAdams has put together a great tutorial with a PDF download and posted it on her blog. Check it out and let her know if it works for you. 

Posted by MarkBriggs on Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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Curiosity fuels Journalism 2.0

Steve Rubel writes a hugely successful blog about PR and marketing called Micropersuasion. Last week he posted an idea that is easily transferable to any industry or profession in the digital age - including journalism.

... the most important “tool” you can have today in business is insatiable curiosity. The minute you lose it, you’re dead.

That’s why the first line I wrote in the book reads “This isn’t about technology, it’s about people.” All the technical training and tools in the world won’t help you if you’re not curious about how they work and how they can help you professionally and personally. This should come especially easy to journalists who, for the most part, are inherently curious.

Once you wonder, the rest is just details.

Posted by MarkBriggs on Monday, May 14, 2007
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Making PDFs without breaking a sweat

A recent thread on an editor-to-editor email listserv I subscribe to focused on the ability to use a scanner (or copier) to automatically make PDFs of printed materials. We have a big, expensive copier/scanner that does a great job, even on large jobs because of the automatic feeder. I’m sure it cost several thousand dollars, though, so the question is: what’s available that’s relatively cheap and wouldn’t require a capital spending request?

Here are some suggestions from the group’s email:

Fujitsu S500. Comment: “we’re paying a bit extra because of the multi-page feed ‘cause scanning page by page was getting a bit tedious. I think we found it for slightly more than $400 after IT found some discounts.”

Epson Perfection 1200U. Comment: “Don’t know its model year or price tag, but couldn’t have been too much. Works fast and gets the job done.”

Anyone using anything else that’s worth a look?

Posted by MarkBriggs on Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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