Importance of Digital and Social Media Training for Journalists

Digital Media and Social Media plays an important part in the job role of a journalist. One must have proper training for these to become a successful and credible journalist. Check out this page to know what are digital and social media training and how are they important for a journalist.

Digital & Social Media Training for Journalists

Digital and social media training includes different programs that help students learn how to effectively use digital technologies, such as social media networks and digital media/ online platforms in journalism. These trainings, in general, impart certain qualities or skills in a student, including communication, marketing, content creation, engagement and analytics. Digital and Social Media Trainings are important for journalists to understand and learn how to report or publish news, engage with audience, verify information from different sources and build a professional presence among the viewers.

Who requires Digital and Social Media Training?

• Students pursuing a career in journalism
• Working journalists (to upgrade their skills)
• Freelance reporters
• Content creators
• Editors

People who are journalists or are pursuing different courses to become one must check this page to know why is digital and social media training important for journalists. Also, get a list of different institutes, companies, and online platforms offering such trainings.

What is Digital Media Training?

It is a training which helps us learn how to create, publish, manage and evaluate content using different digital technologies and online platforms. In today's dynamic world, digital media training teaches technical and creative skills, along with ethical practices required to effectively communicate with the audience. With proper digital media training, a journalist can become a master in following:

• Shooting videos or content on phones
• Using editing tools and apps
• Websites & Content Management System (CMS)
• Producing podcasts
• Content creation
• Multimedia skills
• Digital newsgathering skills
• Digital creation & publishing skills
• Verification and fact-checking skills
• Digital storytelling techniques
• Audience engagement skills
• Data & analytics skills

What is Social Media Training?

It is a training that helps us learn how to effectively, strategically and responsibly use different social networking platforms. A social media training course focuses on teaching how to report and publish news, verify facts or information and effectively engage with audiences on social media platforms.

Following are the skills you will learn through social media training that will help you in journalism:

• Platform-Specific Content Creation
• Using hashtags & SEO
• Using analytical tools
• Verification and fact-checking skills
• Audience engagement
• Community management
• Social media strategy skills
• Personal branding
• Digital Safety & Journalism Ethics

Also Read - Female Journalists in India 

Importance of Digital and Social Media Training for Journalists

Digital and social media training are both equally important for journalists for the following reasons:

News Reaches First Online

In this digital world, people now usually access any news or information through different websites, mobile apps and social media platforms. These include Twitter, TikTok, News Channel Apps & Websites, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Such platforms offer news faster than newspapers or magazines. With digital media training, journalists can easily and quickly publish news in the format preferred by the audience. With social media training, journalists learn how to use these platforms to publish accurate information and interact with the audience.

Storytelling

The dynamics of news sharing and journalism has changed to a great extend, when compared with traditional times. As people today not just consume information or news in text form, digital media training help them learn how to shoot and edit video, record and produce podcasts, and use photos and graphics. Also, each digital platform uses different style to present content. Social media training helps here by teaching how to write short or long form posts, use live videos, reels, threads, and when & how to post content to better reach the audience.

News Discovery

Digital media and social media training both teach journalists about how to monitor trends and hashtags, track real time updates & news, find accounts of eye witness for credibility, use different tools for news gathering and ensure speed without ignoring accuracy.

Verification

The more digitalized the world has become, the more cases of misinformation, fake news, rumors and fake accounts are there. It is the duty of a journalist to give accurate information to the audience. The training helps journalists learn different techniques to verify content before publishing by identifying fake accounts, manipulated video or content and cross-check information. These not only offer correct information to public, but also increases the credibility of a journalist.

Audience Engagement

Unlike older times, journalists now interact directly with the audience. Digital and social media trainings help them learn how to professionally engage with the audience, repond to their comments or criticism, provide context to a story, explain an event/accident/incident/information clearly, and maintaining transparency to strengthen public confidence.

Career Growth

These trainings not only help journalists become good in their profession, it also increase their chances of better job opportunity. No media house or organization wants a journalist who does not possess the required skills or is not credible.

Safety & Ethics

Many journalists face issues such as online harassment, abuse, trolling, impersonation, and account hacking. With digital and social media trainings, they can learn digital security practices, tips to protect their account, ways to securely communicate with the public, and other techniques. Along with their own protection, they also get to learn different media laws and ethics that should be followed while doing their job.

Read More - 

• Best Mass Comm Colleges in Delhi 
• 9 Principles of Journalism

Companies/Institutes Offering Digital Media Training

Check out this table to know the names of different companies, media houses, online platforms and institutes offering digital media training through courses and/or training programs.

Companies/Institutes Offering Social Media Training

Here is the list of companies, online platforms, and universities giving social media training through courses and training programs.

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