When I decided to post about this, I never could have imagined this would be the response I would get.

Thank you all!

I am writing my presentation up at the moment and will be incorporating many of the ideas that you kind people have put forward.

Thanks once again, I’ll let you know how it goes…

J.

The Telegraph’s training program was, I think, a week long and they put people in groups to go out and produce stories using appropriate media (e.g., a bus strike). They made real news in new media and made — this is the important part — new judgments using all their new choices.

Another: Michael Rosenblum (rosenblumtv.com) does a great job in 2 to 5 days teaching people how to make TV stories in new ways with small cameras and without the cliches of TV. He gives them very specific instruction on what he wants them to get from a shoot, sends them out to shoot, and when they come back they go through group critique and then they cut and narrate the pieces. The point: They make something fast. Look at what he accomplished at the Star-Ledger, where I brought him, on his blog.

And I attended a Guardian Media Group offsite in January at which Simon Waldman had tables of execs (with a digital ringer at each) go through a series of tasks in a quick morning to, again, just do it and make online stuff. The moral of the story: It’s easier than you think.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/01/19/just-do-it/

BTW, I’d say you should get the job just because you asked the question here, of course. Consider me a virtual job reference.

I think your plan sounds good: Why it matters. Then very, very useful tools to make them better journalists. Then making stuff. Then, I think, it’s important to talk about their new relationship with the public.

One anecdote: I showed the faculty Twitter and their reaction was, yes, that’s cute and cool but what the hell does it have to do with journalism, Jarvis. I told them about the tweets that became news from the Sichuan earthquake and how the BBC and Reuters are now setting up searches to look for catchwords for news — evacuate, earthquake — on Twitter as early warning systems for news. I told them about news organizations putting out feeds of headlines to get audience. I told them how news folks were using Twitter to cover events. I told them how Sky used to to dynamically outline and comment on the Chancellor’s speech on the budget. OK, the profs said, you pass.

It turned into a Guardian column:
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/05/19/twitter-as-the-canary-in-the-news-coalmine/