How to Use Social Media in the Newsroom: applications open for new online course in Spanish

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas will be offering a four-week online course on “How to Use Social Media in the Newsroom,” an introductory training for journalists interested in learning about how to use social media. The instructor, Esther Vargas, a veteran journalist, a specialist in digital topics and founder of Clasesdeperiodismo.com, will be teaching the course in Spanish from October 22, 2012 through November 18, 2012.

Journalists can apply to this course until October 10 by 5 p.m. (Austin, Texas time). More details about the course can be found here.

Priority will be given to applicants who are from Latin America and the Caribbean. The journalists accepted into the online course will pay a $60 administrative fee and a certificate of participation will be issued to those who comply with the course’s requirements.

The course focuses on the best ways to leverage social media for journalists, how to build your digital brand, and how to create a social media strategy in the newsroom.

The course is designed for those who are involved with working with social media in the newsroom. Journalists who work for a news organization or work independently are invited to apply. Journalists must have a Twitter and Facebook account in order to take the course. In addition, those enrolled must have a basic level of proficiency in English as some course material is in English in addition to Spanish.

This online course is divided into weekly modules containing multimedia presentations and links to online resources. Most of the course activities can be followed in the days and times most appropriate for each student, and a live webinar will be held each week during the course. Exercises, online discussions and additional assignments will also be part of the curriculum. Participants can expect to spend 10-15 hours per week on the course.

The course will be taught using the Knight Center’s distance learning platform that has benefited more than 6,000 journalists from Latin American and the Caribbean, since it was created in the fall of 2003.

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