5 free online courses that will help you better your journalism skills

Whether you’re an aspiring or established journalist, you must already know that journalism is an ever-evolving field. It must adapt to users’ consumption patterns at any given moment. No longer is the old-fashioned method of pitching, fieldwork and filing your stories on time sufficient. Not only do you need to be able to tell your story across the multiple emerging media but also assess its social impact. The courses in our line-up below range from multimedia journalism to journalism for social activism, and are perfect for you to undertake if you’ve been meaning to use this time to up-skill. Get cracking!

English for Journalists

Offered by UC Berkeley 

Offered by an institution reputed for its journalism program, University of California, Berkeley, this course is targeted towards working journalists or students of journalism. Understand current issues facing journalists globally, how to communicate better by improving your grammar and vocabulary, how to write effective news stories that really communicate with an audience, as well as the ethics of journalism.

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Activism and Citizen Journalism through Media

Offered by University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg 

Learn how to use media for the powerful activism tool that it is. You will be taught how to produce and pitch a newsworthy story, how to use radio, print and social media to your advantage, and how to write balanced stories while still maintaining your activism goals. What’s more, the course also has an analytical aspect to it—you will top it off by learning to assess your campaign’s impact and recognise your own bias as a journalist.

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Visualization for Data Journalism

Offered by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Want to be able to create data visuals like The New York Times, Vox, and Pew? One of the world’s leading universities in research and information sciences, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has designed this course to give you the tools to think critically about the visual presentation of data, how and why it works, and how to do it right.

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Become a Journalist: Report the News

Offered by Michigan State University

Those looking for a one-stop-shop for induction into the journalism world, this is the course for you. From learning the best practices and ethical standards of the news gathering process, to working on hands-on projects with your peers, and learning about journalism’s societal impact—this program covers it all.

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Multimedia Journalism

Offered by Udemy

Journalism as an industry is evolving as fast as technology. To be a skilled journalist today means being able to tell your story through multiple mediums, including photography, video, audio, digital and print formats. So if you're looking to expand your reporting toolkit, this course might be the perfect fit for you.

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