U.S. Embassy in Vietnam | Online Journalism

Hanoi, Vietnam | 9 - 13 June 2008

Online Journalist Training

Monday: Today's Online Journalism

8:30 - 10 a.m. > Current practices in online journalism in the Western countries.

10:15 - 11:30 a.m. > Journalist blogs -- examples of how newspaper reporters have started new blogs and built up loyal and enthusiastic audiences for them. You'll learn how to adjust your writing style to appeal to online readers, how to use links effectively, how to manage comments and "trolls"; how to think about the length and frequency of posts.

1:30 - 3 p.m., 3:15 - 5 p.m. > Start your own blog (hands-on).

Go to WordPress.com (or use the version Tiếng Việt) and register for a free blog. Click the green button: Sign Up Now!

Resources and examples:

Prepare for Tuesday's session:

Tuesday: Audio Gathering and Editing

8:30 - 10 a.m. > Examples of audio stories.

10:15 - 11:30 a.m. > How to conduct an interview for online audio.

1:30 - 3 p.m., 3:15 - 5 p.m. > Editing audio with Audacity (hands-on). We use Switch to convert WMA audio files to the WAV format (uncompressed).

Prepare for Wednesday's session:

Wednesday: Audio Slideshows

8:30 - 10 a.m. > Audio slideshows -- rationale and examples.

10:15 - 11:30 a.m. > How to create an online slideshow with Soundslides. The demo version is free. Soundslides uses the Flash player, which is a Web browser plug-in that most Internet users already have.

1:30 - 3 p.m., 3:15 - 5 p.m. > Create an audio slideshow (hands-on).

Thursday: Useful Tools, and Saigon Times Site Critique

8:30 - 10 a.m. > RSS feeds and readers -- why and how to use them

10:15 - 11:30 a.m. > Social bookmarking and other social networks

1:30 - 3 p.m., 3:15 - 5 p.m. > Publishing strategies -- how an online newsroom operates

Friday: Online Video

8:30 - 10 a.m. > Newspaper video -- rationale and examples.

10:15 - 11:30 a.m. > How to shoot video that is easy to edit.

1:30 - 3 p.m., 3:15 - 5 p.m. > Edit video with Windows Movie Maker (hands-on).