NewsU has launched a new course called Leading an Online Newsroom: What You Need to Know. The course is taught by Susan Karol, executive director of the Suburban Newspapers of America Foundation, and funded by Knight Foundation.

The course consists of five “classes”, each with tips and commentary from editors on best practices for online newsrooms. There are also interactive activities that simulate running an online publication and respond to news events: class participants choose which staff members to send to cover a story, and learn how to adjust their workflow for breaking news.

It also features a “Case Study Showcase” of seven online news organizations’ successes and challenges. Participants can also add their own newsroom to use as an example.

The NewsU team is working on its third course, which will be on innovation in community news, and will hold two webinars this month. Check out a list of NewsU courses (.pdf), which are free for everyone who registers on the web site.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

Ford and Knight Foundation partnered to support the participation of 76 journalists and students at The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) convention.

Recognizing that the media landscape is in flux, the theme of the 27th annual NAHJ conference was: “Evolve.  Embrace. Reinvent.” And the focus was on multimedia and digital journalism.

The program was designed to help journalists acquire the multimedia and technological skills they need to keep their jobs, find new ones or grow professionally.

There were thirty-three sessions offering multimedia skills that ranged from how to Blog and use Twitter to how to Podcast, stream live video and create Mashups.

The Knight Digital Media Center held a Multimedia Bootcamp, where conference attendees could learn the basic skills needed for multimedia storytelling and get hands-on training on how to record audio, take photos and shoot videos for the Web.

David Ardia, the director of the Citizen Media Law Project, moderated a panel on online media law and ethics that focused on legal issues that might arise from the daily practice of online journalism to legal and ethical issues related to user generated content and the bloggosphere.

If you are interested in learning digital media skills and on getting hands-on training, please start by visiting:

Knight Digital Media Center

J-Lab – The Institute for Interactive Journalism

Knight Citizen News Network

Citizen Media Law Project

Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

Julia Scott, who left her job at the Los Angeles Daily News to start BargainBabe.com, recommends being obsessed with your new business as a key to being a good news entrepreneur. That, and paying attention to social media as well as your advertisers.

Scott was a Fellow for the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp, the Knight Digital Media Center’s week-long program held in May in partnership with the Online Journalism Review and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

The boot camp taught 12 digital entrepreneurs selected by Knight such topics as developing a sustainable business plan and marketing and audience development.

The Knight Digital Media Center will hold a Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop from July 12-17 at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. The next boot camp for news entrepreneurs will be announced by the Knight Center when a date is set. Express interest through the center’s web site.

Ian Bogost (3:05) on news games at last week’s Games For Change conference:

“Journalism is hardly dying; in fact, it’s possible that it couldn’t be killed. The idea of informing and educating a public, such that they can make independent decisions, is something that is so endemic of a democracy, that we would have to take down the democracy to kill it. Instead, what’s changing is the way that we communicate with one another.”

Claire Austin is a Journalism Program Intern at Knight Foundation.

Information is the electricity of the 21st century, underlying everything.

In an Aspen Institute report “Civic Engagement on the Move: How mobile media can serve the public good” (.pdf) J.D. Lasica writes “more than 80 percent of Americans ages 5 to 24 will use mobile digital media by next year.”

In another of Lasica’s Aspen Institute publications, “Identity in the Age of Cloud Computing: The next-generation Internet’s impact on business, governance, and social interaction,” (.pdf) William T. Coleman explores how mobile media will make civic engagement much easier by providing the user with access to the cloud computing network at any place or time while still protecting the user’s identity. 

And for journalists, Mark Glaser at Media Shift is wondering lately if Twitter will change the world and Michele McLellan at the Knight Digital Media Center has blogged about ways for journalists to engage social media users.

Facebook can be used as a reporting tool too with the new NewsCloud Facebook App,

which builds a youth audience through two publications with new approaches to outreach and marketing. One focuses on environmental issues and another is geared toward college students in Minnesota.   

Other good examples of mobile digital media in journalism?

The political site Scoop 44 will expand youth journalists’ coverage of the current U.S. administration, generational politics, and international stories with a new $242,800 grant from Knight.

From the press release:

Bolstered by Knight’s investment, Scoop44 is creating a new nonprofit news bureau and online model run entirely by young journalists. The grant will enable the operation to staff correspondents and editors in order to increase the quality and quantity of news stories focusing on the next generation and drive interactive exchange between the new administration and young people.

…

Expanding a network of student journalists stationed in Washington, D.C. and nationwide, Scoop44’s editorial team, staffed correspondents and contributors will deliver nonpartisan coverage through multiple
 mediums and platforms, such as feature-length articles, blog posts, multimedia reports, podcasts, email alerts and live online chats.

Thoughts? Things you’d like to see Scoop 44 cover? Let us know in the comments.

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

The free PDF version of the book Journalism 2.0 passed the 100,000 download mark today.

The book was written by Mark Briggs, assistant managing editor for interactive news at The News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington.

Journalism 2.0 is a great resource. It is a useful guide that helps professional and amateur news producers understand and implement digital tools to enhance their reporting.

Journalism 2.0 can be downloaded as a PDF at J-Lab’s Knight Citizen News Network. The Spanish and Portuguese versions can be downloaded at the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Around 20,000 additional copies have been downloaded in these two other languages.

Have you downloaded your copy yet?

Jose Zamora is a Journalism Program Associate at Knight Foundation

Stanford University announced today the 2009-2010 U.S. Knight Fellows. In response to the demands of the media landscape, the 44 year old fellowship program established a new focus for the program that seeks journalism innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership. The Knight Fellowships Program Committee selected 12 journalists out of 166 applicants. The new fellows will develop projects that seek to speed media innovation through the use of news, information, new business models and technology.

What do you think journalism programs should be focusing on?