6 Free Trainings for Reporters in 2012

Mark your calendars for these free training workshops for reporters on important topics you and your news organizations are covering now.  Travel and tuition are paid for by a grant from The McCormick Foundation.  Apply now for these workshops: 

• Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans return home, straining government resources for veterans beyond capacity. (Hosted by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University, which plans a workshop March 5-7 in Boston. Details and an application at www.necir-bu.org.  Deadline to apply is Feb. 20.)
  
• Covering globalization at the local level — beyond the G8/NATO summits. (Hosted by DePaul University in Chicago and organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and The Poynter Institute.  Workshop March 19-21. Details and an application at www.poynter.org/12sriglobal.  Deadline to apply is Feb. 29.)

• Investigating Super PACs -- following the money. (Hosted by the Sunlight Foundation, which plans a workshop April 21-22 in Washington, D.C.  Details and an application at http://sunlightfoundation.com/training/sri/.  Deadline to apply is March 11.)

Watch for details on these workshops later in the year:

• Stress, suicide and the economy – the recession and mental health. (Hosted by Local Media Foundation (formerly Suburban Newspapers of America) and Associated Press Managing Editors. Workshop will be this summer in Chicago. Details to come.)
• Covering social protest movements in an age of social media. (Hosted by California State University, Fullerton, and the Orange County Press Club, which plan a workshop in October at Cal State Fullerton.)
• Covering school violence and discipline. (Hosted by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  The workshop will take place in October in Chicago.)

Reporters from small and medium-sized news organizations are especially encouraged to apply for these two- and three-day workshops, called McCormick Specialized Reporting Institutes. Watch for a live chat on each topic in the month or so before each workshop on Poynter.org.


If you can't attend the workshop, you can learn key lessons from the training through a webinar that will take place after each workshop on Poynter's e-learning site, News University (www.NewsU.org).  NewsU will also host a page of resources on each topic, sharing sources, tip sheets, story ideas and more.
Questions, email mccormicksri@poynter.org.

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Grantee Spotlight: ICFJ’s Spanish-Language Multimedia Trainers

We are excited to support the International Center for Journalists’ new program, “Líderes Digitales: Creating a New Generation of Spanish-Language Multimedia Trainers.” This initiative will teach dozens of journalists from across the U.S. to train their own newsrooms in multimedia storytelling, emerging technologies, social media and visual techniques.

Participants were chosen from more than a dozen states, including large cohorts from California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas. Some represent Telemundo and Univision but others work for local news organizations and nonprofits.

The program begins with 57 participants, who will all take part in a four-week online course. At the end, participants will submit proposals for a multimedia project that will strengthen their communities

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ICFJ will then choose 26 reporter trainers to attend a three-day boot camp on backpack journalism. From this group, eight finalists will be chosen to receive additional intensive training to become Spanish-language, digital-media trainers.

For more information on this exciting program, click here.

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