Journalists learn digital media project development in 4th edition of Knight Center course

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas concluded the fourth edition of its online course, “Digital Media Project Development” which was taught in Spanish by veteran journalist Hiram Enriquez, director for Digital Media, Tr3s at MTV Networks. The course ran from May 9-June 12, with an extra week added to wrap up grades and coursework.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas concluded the fourth edition of its online course, “Digital Media Project Development” which was taught in Spanish by veteran journalist Hiram Enriquez, director for Digital Media, Tr3s at MTV Networks. The course ran from May 9-June 12, with an extra week added to wrap up grades and coursework.

Enriquez is a veteran expert in digital media projects. Before his duties at MTV he served as program director for Yahoo! Hispanic America, worked on product development at Univision Interactive Media and created the program “Zona Digital” for CNN en Español. He also maintains a blog called “Digital Stucco,” which focuses on digital media. Knight Center employee Paul Alonso assisted him with the course.

“In each of the editions of this course, I am always satisfied to see the creativity and the innovative sense of many of the projects that are developed,” said Enriquez. “It’s a good opportunity to see the birth of an idea and it’s development.”

During the five-week course, 43 participants representing 10 countries worked completely online and accessed the Knight Center distance learning platform at their own pace. They logged in from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, México, Perú, United States and Venezuela. On the menu were presentations about content strategy, search engine optimization, social network analysis and other tools they used to create a digital media project.

“The project can be real or hypothetical, but in general most of the participants work on something real that is related to their work,” said Enriquez. “The objective of the course is not to criticize the project but to illustrate the methodology, the different aspects that one must consider in each case.”

Journalists praised the course and Enriquez for giving them the tools and information they needed to improve their work skills. “I learned to make better use of social media networks and how to better address the content according to the audience,” wrote one student in the course evaluation. Another said, “What I learned in this course will help me develop digital media projects now that it has brought me the tools I needed to make it happen.”