Have you attended an online webinar or taken an online course during the last three years? Many of you probably have. While these have been available for several years, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly increased the availability of online training. There are now so many options for people looking for marketing and communications training.

Telling journalistic stories is a critical way that organizational communicators, like you, can share about your organization’s cause. To do that well, you need to cultivate the same skills as a good journalist: knowing how to discover and develop a story, cultivate sources, research, and conduct meaningful interviews.

I’ve compiled a list of several online courses that can help you in all of these areas.  Several are provided by Magazine Training International (MTI), Poynter Institute, or Coursera. To access their courses, you will need to set up free accounts on their websites.

Journalism Fundamentals

• Journalism Craft & Values (Poynter Institute course)
• Gathering and Developing the News (Coursera course. Modules are organized in 4 “weeks.” If you don’t want to pay for a certificate, skip locked content.)

Developing News Sense and Beat Coverage

• Nose for News in Journalism
• Developing and Applying News Sense
• Introduction to Reporting: Beat Basics (Poynter Institute course)

Cultivating Sources and Stories

• Finding Great Stories When You Can’t Be There in Person (MTI course)
• Bring Empathy to Your Reporting to Cultivate Sources (Poynter Institute course)

Research

• Gathering Information (MTI e-book)

Interviewing

• Interviewing Essentials: Top Tips
• How to Conduct a Successful Interview (MTI e-book)
• Dos and Don’ts of Journalistic Interviews
• Preparing for an Interview
• The Interview (Poynter Institute course)
• During the Interview
• Interviewing Bereaved Families
• Treating Interviewees Fairly

I’ll be posting more about free courses on other topics, so stay tuned!

* Note: If a link to an MTI webinar does not work, use their search bar to search for the webinar by name. You may need to add it to your cart to purchase (for $0) before being able to access it.