​Courses​
Journo's Gym
3 Days
What’s in a story? Whether you’re trying to write a gripping opener or develop a windy narrative, this comprehensive practical course will exercise young journalists’ writing skills so that they learn how adapt their writing styles.
By the end of this course, journalists will be able to write both hard news stories and opinion pieces on both traditional media platforms and on the internet with ease. They will learn how to write tight, entertaining stories that speak to the intended audience. It’s designed as a refresher and will help them structure stories with tight story lines and great flow, meet their deadlines and know when to stop writing.
Media Law and Ethics
2 Days
Many facets of journalism have changed in the two decades, including some of the laws and codes that guide the profession. This course helps reporters get to grips with the law in South Africa and how to engage with it as journalists. It also helps reporters understand the South African press code, how to avoid defamation lawsuits, invasion of privacy allegations and talks through ethical conduct for journalists. It works through the Promotion of Access to Information Act and the Protection of State Information Bill and highlights the four pillars of ethics being truth telling, independence, minimising harm and accountability.
Managing a 21st Century Newsroom
2 Days
Resources are strained; budgets are stretched and stories keep rolling in. How do you keep on top of it all? Aimed at newsroom managers, this course helps news editors get on top of the needs in their newsrooms -- from how to structure their news diaries to doing long term planning, story generation and managing their reporters to keep both the morale and productivity levels high.
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Dealing with the Media
05 Days
How do you adequately prepare for an interview with a journalist? What about press releases and media advisories? Your effectiveness as media liaison depends on how well you understand the way the media works and what makes for effective copy. Created by media professionals, this course will give you the insight into the newsroom that can result in good relationships with the media.
Creative Writing and Editing for Corporate Publications
5 Days
Delivering key messages in the corporate materials can be a complicated task. This practical course is a must for all professionals interested in writing for corporate publications from government media liaison officers those working in the private sector and civil society organisations. It will coach employees within communications units on how to structure articles, newsletters, in-house publications and reports for the maximum effect.
Social Media as source and platform
2 Days
Whether you’re a journalist, communicator, a big corporate or a small non-governmental organisation, you can’t afford to ignore social media. Social media has the potential to provide unmatched insights into stories as they unfold online. But many journalists and communicators’ careers have ended abruptly with errant tweets, stories and images that have led to legal battles. This course equips journalists and communicators to deal with the additional burden of “socializing” online.
Becoming a Multimedia Journalist
3 Days
Journalists are now not only reporters, but also bloggers, videographers, writers, photographers, streamers, graphics artists, presenters, readers, subtitlers and even sign language artists.
The basic skill of every journalists is the ability to write a story. The modern multimedia journalists can tell that story in many different ways.
Photojournalism for Communicators
2 Days
This course is designed for working and student photojournalists. This is an intensive, hands-on workshop where the photographers will create, shoot and edit their own photo story. The participants will discuss the work of award winning photojournalists
Creating a photo story challenges a photojournalist to look harder and think more deeply about the people and places they are photographing. Photo stories also refine research, reporting and editing skills. Single images can become more thoughtful and complete as a result of shooting photo stories. Finally, a photographer's marketability will be improved if he or she can shoot a good photo story because there is heavy influence placed on photo stories and projects in competitions, grants, and agencies.
Effective Corporate Storytelling
5 Days
This custom-designed course brings together the best of journalism, creative writingand corporate communication to equip participants with all the skills needed to tell compelling, impactful stories and connect with clients in their day-to-day work.
The course has been designed to give participants the chance to fully understand the fundamentals of effective communication during a three-day training block, and then
immediately implement what they’ve learnt by working on an assignment during a one-week break. The course wraps up with a highly-practical two-day session that allows participants to edit and improve their own work.
Crisis Management
2 Days
The world of media is changing. In addition to TV, radio and print, you now also have on-line and mobile communications.
You can no longer talk about mass media without social media. This presents communicators (in the private and public sector) with interesting challenges that could be either opportunities or landmines if they unprepared or uninformed.
Writing Radio News Bulletins
2 Days
The course will equip journalists to quickly work through agency copy to
pick out the main news threads, being alert to possible information contained in boilerplate paragraphs. Trainees will be exposed to a range of writing styles (‘Writing a human interest story’), writing conditions such as working under pressure (‘Breaking news, keeping the essence, presenting the whole picture’). The course includes in-depth discussions, examples and practical exercises.
Interviewing Skills
2 Days
Interviewing someone involves much more than just asking questions – it’s about asking the right person the right questions at the right time. This highly interactive workshop will not only provide participants with a keen understanding of the powerful impact they can have when handling an interview successfully, but will
also enable them to translate good interviews into excellent copy.
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