Digital Toolbox for Journalists: A series of four Knight Center webinars

Registration is now closed.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas is offering journalists an opportunity to improve their reporting skills with a unique quartet of online seminars called the Knight Center Webinar Series: Digital Toolbox for Journalists.

The four webinars to be offered in July will cover the following topics: Writing for the Web (in Spanish), Social Media Techniques and Tools (in English), Data Visualization Basics (in Spanish), and Data-Driven Reporting (in English).

Registration for the webinars is open until full capacity is reached. Each webinar costs $30, but participants who are fluent in Spanish and English can enroll in all four webinars for the discounted price of $80.

Journalists are encouraged to enroll in all four webinars to take advantage of the full potential of the Digital Toolbox to help them broaden their reporting skills. One of the webinars (Writing for the Web) requires participants to attend two sessions, but the other webinars will last only one session.

The webinars will be taught by internationally recognized experts in digital journalism, such as Aron Pilhofer, interactive news editor of The New York Times; Alberto Cairo, director of infographics Época magazine (Brazil) and ex-infographics editor of El Mundo (Spain); Guillermo Franco, ex-editor of ElTiempo.com (Colombia); and Robert Quigley, social media editor at the newspaper Austin American-Statesman.

The Knight Center uses a state-of-the-art e-learning platform. Webinar participants will need to have a wired connection (direct cable connection to the Internet) to view the webinar materials and access to audio through the computer (via headphones or speakers) to hear the instructor.

The number of participants in each webinar is limited, so journalists are encouraged to register as soon as possible. All times noted below are Central Daylight Time. To register for the webinars click here.

Here are the details of the Knight Center’s Digital Toolbox for Journalists webinar series:

Registrations for Writing for the Web closed Tuesday, July 12 at 10 a.m. (CDT)

• Writing for the Web (Closed)
Instructor: Guillermo Franco
Language: Spanish
Dates: Part 1 July 12 (12-2 p.m. CDT); Part 2 July 13 (12-2 p.m. CDT). Participants must be able to attend both dates to enroll in this webinar.
Course Content: This two-part webinar will feature the basics of how to write for the web. Franco will take journalists through techniques of how to write headlines, stories and how to optimize content for the digital platform.
Guillermo Franco has 24 years of journalism experience and has dedicated the past 10 years to digital journalism and the Internet. He spent most of his career at El Tiempo daily newspaper and eltiempo.com, Colombia’s most visited domestic website. From 2000 to 2008, Franco served as the New Media Content Manager at El Tiempo and as the managing editor of eltiempo.com. Franco is currently a consultant, writer, and teacher.
For the course information sheet click here.
To register for the webinars click here.

Registrations for Social Media Techniques and Tools for Journalists webinar closed Thursday, July 14 at 2 p.m. (CDT)

• Social Media Techniques and Tools for Journalists (Closed)
Instructor: Robert Quigley
Language: English
Date: July 14 (5-7 p.m. CDT)
Course Content: This webinar will feature information on how journalists can learn about the use of social media for their daily work. Quigley will help journalists explore this social media landscape and how it can be used effectively in news gathering, reporting and engagement with the news audience.
Robert Quigley is the social media editor for the Austin American-Statesman and will be joining the University of Texas at Austin’s journalism department as a senior lecturer in August. He is the Statesman’s chief community engagement strategist, and has been the voice behind the @statesman Twitter account since June 2008. In 2010, the Statesman won a first-place Texas APME award for breaking news coverage of the Fort Hood shootings, and the judges singled out his use of social media to cover the story.
For the course information sheet click here.
To register for the webinars click here.

Registrations for Data Visualization Basics webinar closed at 7 a.m. (CDT) on July 19, 2011
• Data Visualization Basics (Closed)
Instructor: Alberto Cairo
Language: Spanish
Date: July 19 (10 a.m.-12 p.m.) CDT
Course Content: This webinar will feature some basics of how journalists can take data and bring it to life via the power of visuals. Cairo will take journalists through a tour of data visualization examples and the science as well as the art form behind using this technique in news stories.
Alberto Cairo is the director of infographics at Época magazine (Brazil). Before that, from 2005 to 2010, Cairo was the James H. Schumaker term assistant professor at the School of Journalism at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he taught infographics for print and online. Cairo was also head of the online graphics department at El Mundo (Spain) between 2000 and 2005 when the Spanish newspaper won several international awards for breaking-news infographics coverage.
For the course information sheet click here.
To register for the webinars click here.

Registrations for Data-driven Reporting closed at 11 a.m. (CDT) on July 26, 2011
• Data-driven Reporting
Instructor: Aron Pilhofer
Language: English
Date: July 26 (2-4 p.m.) CDT
Course Content: In today’s digital-driven data landscape, Pilhofer will help journalists understand how to navigate through the complications of working with data and how to find the treasures that lie within the data to help the journalist create a unique, contextual, and rich news story.
Aron Pilhofer is editor of Interactive News at The New York Times and is also a co-founder of two news-related nonprofits: DocumentCloud.org and Hacks and Hackers. At The Times, Pilhofer’s team blends journalism and technology to enhance reporting online through social media, community and dynamic, data-driven Web applications. He joined The Times in 2005 as a projects editor on the paper’s newly expanded computer-assisted reporting team.
For the course information sheet click here.
To register for the webinars click here.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created by Professor Rosental Alves at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism in August 2002 thanks to generous donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Center also receives contributions from other donors, including Open Society Foundations and from The University of Texas at Austin. The Center’s main goal is to help journalists in Latin American and the Caribbean who are interested in improving the quality of journalism in their countries.