Five masterclasses: in data journalism, writing for Buzzfeed, live reporting with Snapchat and Periscope, creating mashed-up RSS news feeds, and how to bring gaming into your reporting

There are now five masterclasses to accompany the new, second edition of Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide

You can find all that tuition here, or read on to explore individual topics.

But please note that these masterclasses are designed to complement the tuition in the MMJ textbook, and not as stand-alone explorations of new developments in journalism. So you'll need the book to put them in context, and you can buy it here for the UK and here for the US and Canada.

Data journalism: new practical projects
In this masterclass we offer a new range of data journalism projects, with step-by-step instructions on completing them. Tuition here

How to write for Buzzfeed: the art of the listical 
This masterclass offers a practical demonstration of how to create features in the listical style used widely on new journalism platforms such as Buzzfeed. Tuition here

The journalism of now: using Snapchat and Periscope for reporting 
I’ve called this masterclass the journalism of now simply because both these platforms are designed to carry live news and information. It typically disappears within 24 hours, although there are ways to keep it live for longer. We look in detail at the particular demands of  live reporting on these platforms. Tuition here

Creating a mashed-up RSS feed of news or information 
 This tuition explores ChimpFeedr. ChimpFeedr lets you add a series of individual RSS feed urls to a list, and then – at the click of a button – it generates a new RSS feed which combines all the posts going to those individual feeds in your original list. It's a great way to create a news feed from a wide range of sources which you can then republish. Tuition here

How to bring gaming into your reporting and compete with Candycrush

We’re not talking about games for diversion in this tuition, but rather games that are part of the news offering of a media company.

The idea is that games serve to illustrate the impact of given events or actions much more powerfully than if a story is told through text and other media that do not directly involve the reader.

Gamifying a news story enables readers to interact with the information presented, entering into the story, exploring it and discovering its complexities.Tuition here

Previewing Masterclass 2: How to write for Buzzfeed, the art of the listical

 
via GIPHY

New ways of communicating - of doing journalism - are coming thick and fast these days.

 Not all journalists believe sites such as Buzzfeed, with their distinctive use of listicals, animated Gifs and highly-shareable content are really about journalism.

Some hate the idea of having to craft content that fits this style.

They're wrong to dismiss this trend. Buzzfeed, and the best of the new breed of journalism sites, embody all the core virtues, skills and values of good journalism. And what they do is not nearly as new as it might at first appear.

 So this masterclass offers a practical demonstration of how to create features in the listical style used widely on new journalism platforms such as Buzzfeed.

The tuition updates and builds on material covered in Chapter 17 of MMJ

 But it also draws on everything taught in MMJ about what news is, finding news, writing it, headline it, creating stills and moving images and so on. So what follows is not to be taken in isolation.

Buy they book here for the UK or here for North America

 Not sure what a listical is? Check out this definition.

Why Buzzfeed?

One of the key things I've tried to do in MMJ is replicate the working journalist's experience of coming up with ideas, pitching them to an editor and then producing a highly professional story that gets published.

If you are on a university course that's no doubt what your tutors try to do as well, and you almost certainly create content for a print or online publication.

Buzzfeed also offers you that opportunity.

They invite you to write, photograph and produce video for them. This How to use Buzzfeed guide tells you what you need to know. 

And here's how to sign up and post to Buzzfeed.

Once you are up-and-running with a Buzzfeed account, you'll be ready to click on the link below to continue with our tution.

NEXT: HOW AND WHAT TO PUBLISH ON BUZZFEED