Social Networking Classes June 10, 11; $15 for Members
Classes on social networking will be offered Thursday, June 10, and
Friday, June 11. Each class is one hour. Sign up for one or as many as
fits your schedule.
The fee is $15 per class for NPC members and $25 per class for non-members. The classes are in the 13th floor Bloomberg Center for
Electronic Journalism next to the library.
June 10:
9:30 to 10:30 a.m. - Web 2.0 Tools
11 a.m. to Noon - Google Search Tips
1:30 to 2:30 p.m. - Twitter
3 to 4 p.m. - Reporting from Facebook
June 11:
9:30 to 10:30 am - Basics of Blogging
11 to Noon - Build Your Own Newsstand (using RSS)
Register at http://press.org/library/classes.cfm or by contacting Beth
Shankle at [email protected] or 202-662-7509. Participants are welcome
to bring their own laptops for any of the sessions, but computers will
also be provided.
The "Google Search Techniques" class will help users refine search
results from millions of hits to a handful of targeted sites. Google's
specialized search services, including News, Scholar, and Books, and
scenarios where those services can be more useful than a traditional
search are also examined.
In "Web 2.0 Tools" we'll discuss what these resources are and how they
can be used in your everyday work to help you manage everything from the
news you read to the way you contact people. Resources covered include
Delicious, Flickr, Wikis, Chrome, Meebo, Firefox Plugins, iCal, YouTube,
Skype, and Digg.
"Twittering Away" is a class for those who are interested in twittering
during big events or for any other purpose. We will discuss what Twitter
is and how it can be used by journalists. Participants can set up their
own accounts, connect their accounts with their cell phones and Facebook
pages, and (if they have administrative access) add a twitter badge to
their website or blog. Twitter is a micro-blogging service where users
can post brief updates and respond to the updates of others. Ways
journalists can use Twitter include communicating with each other and
their audiences, researching stories, contacting sources, and driving
traffic to their websites.
"Reporting from Facebook" will examine what online social networks are
and the differences among several of the most popular sites, including
Facebook and LinkedIn. The class includes an in-depth look at Facebook --
navigating the site, using it to research stories, using it to identify
and contact sources and using it to connect with your audience.
In "Basics of Blogging," participants will set up a blog using Blogger
and learn how to format their posts, add videos and pictures, easily
include ads, and monitor the blog statistics using FeedBurner. The
class is limited to 15 people.
In "Build Your Own Newsstand," we will discuss how you can create your
personalized news list by using RSS feeds. We will start by talking
about what RSS is, where you can find RSS feeds, and how you can
subscribe to them. By the end of the class all participants will have a
Google Reader account and will have subscribed to a newspaper columnist,
a blog, a Twitter feed and a Flickr feed. The class is limited to 15
people.
The classes are underwritten by a $50,000 grant from the Ethics and
Excellence in Journalism Foundation.