The BBC has one of the deepest training departments of any journalism organization in the world. Fortunately, thanks to the generosity of the BBC and British taxpayers, many of the BBC’s training courses are available free online for anyone to use.
The courses you’ll find here were originally designed for BBC. As a result, some of the modules contain specific references to BBC procedures, methods and services.
Nevertheless, they’re still useful, especially in a rapidly converging world. The radio courses, for example, are useful for anyone interesting in learning audio storytelling skills for podcasting.
The courses you’ll find on the site include:
- BBC News Style Guide
- Cool Edit Pro 01: The Basics
- Cool Edit Pro 02: The Editing Process
- Cool Edit Pro 03: Multitrack Packaging
- Cool Edit Pro 04: Mix Down and Housekeeping
- Interviewing for Radio
- Microphones and Sound for Radio
- Minidisc for Radio
- DV Camera Shooting Guides
- DV Lighting Safety
- DV Usage Guides
- Good Shooting Guide: the basic principles
- Introduction to Video Production
- Television Glossary
You can expect more online material from the BBC in the future. BBC News recently launched a new internal training site — The College of Journalism Web site, or CoJo online — with more than 500 pages and 40 videos of training. Right now it’s only available to BBC employees, but the BBC hopes to launch a public version by the end of the year.
(Another fantastic resource for online training, for those not already aware, is News University, a project of The Poynter Institute funded by the Knight Foundation, which you can find at newsu.org)
YOUR TURN: What Sites Do You Recommend?
Please send them to poynter@jondube.com, and I may run your suggestions.
JON’S LINKS:
