Essential coding skills for journalism students

Posted on December 8, 2013 by mulinblog

Journalism students should be able to (a) write their own HTML/CSS codes, (b) tweak existing javascript codes and (c) talk about programming languages such as Python and Ruby.

A U.S. university recently created a new department by merging the journalism program and the computer science program. This curriculum innovation prompts me to think about how to incorporate the above-mentioned skills in a journalism curriculum – they can come in three levels and two web programming courses. Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum design, Data journalism | 4 Comments

How to design a capstone project for digital journalism majors

Posted on November 27, 2013 by mulinblog

A capstone project for digital journalism majors can take the form of a multiplatform investigative story, coupled with a content strategy which involves using digital tools for topic research, data collection and content promotion.
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Posted in Teaching digital journalism | Leave a comment

Free online course, Writing for the Web, to start Dec. 2

Posted on November 12, 2013 by mulinblog

Writing for the Web is a free, four-week massive open online course (MOOC) offered by this blog. This free journalism course focuses on optimizing web texts for (a) easy online reading and (b) higher search engine ranking. Continue reading →

Posted in Content training & marketing, Writing for the web | 3 Comments

Essential web analytics knowledge for journalism students: Understanding key Google Analytics reports for content management

Posted on November 5, 2013 by mulinblog

As future content producers or managers, journalism students should learn to analyze relevant Google Analytics reports of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as bounce rate, average time on site, pageviews per visit, new vs returning visitors, and recency.
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Posted in Content training & marketing, Teaching digital journalism | 1 Comment

Basic web scraping and data visualization using Google Spreadsheets

Posted on October 15, 2013 by mulinblog

Google Spreadsheets provides a free, one-stop solution for journalists and researchers to retrieve tabular data from a web page, visualize the data, and embed the visualizations in a news or research report. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 1 Comment

A quick guide on web scraping: Why and how

Posted on October 11, 2013 by mulinblog

Web scraping, which is the collection and cleaning of online data, is the first step in any data-driven project. Here’s a short video that explains what scraping is, and how to create automated scraping jobs using a digital tool. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 3 Comments

Good photography is key to producing compelling audio slideshows

Posted on October 9, 2013 by mulinblog

The “old school” photography course should be part of the curriculum core of a “digital journalism” program because, among others, good photography helps produce a compelling audio slideshow story. Continue reading →

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Essential data journalism skills: A conversation with three data journalists

Posted on October 1, 2013 by mulinblog

I had an informative Twitter conversation with three data journalists about the skills needed for a journalism graduate to land a data reporting job, how J-Schools can teach data skills, and how to learn those skills. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 1 Comment

How to best use Forum in Moodle courses: Ideas and tips by professionals

Posted on September 24, 2013 by mulinblog

A compilation of good ideas for using Forum in a Moodle course, edited out of a discussion thread in Teaching with Moodle: An Introduction, which is a MOOC course offered by learn.moodle.net and attracted more than 9,000 participants. Continue reading →

Posted in Content training & marketing | 1 Comment

How to embed customized video playlists in online training

Posted on September 8, 2013 by mulinblog

If you are an online instructor or trainer and need to show multiple videos in a blog post, an online course lecture page, or a tutorial page, I recommend a free web service, tubesnack.com, which allows you to create, customize and embed a video playlist. Continue reading →

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The myriad skills employers now expect of journalism graduates

Posted on September 4, 2013 by mulinblog

Based on what employers and recent graduates are telling him, a journalism professor compiles a list of skills demanded by the current job market. I find this list informational and am sharing it with my readers: Continue reading →

Posted in Curriculum design, Industry observation | 6 Comments

Why data visualization matters?

Posted on September 3, 2013 by mulinblog

Data visualization reveals unnoticed information, especially in large data sets; gives answers faster; and helps journalists investigate cause-effect relationship. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 3 Comments

Journalistic skills are key to effective audio slideshow storytelling

Posted on August 20, 2013 by mulinblog

It’s now easy and popular to create an audio slideshow, but it takes training and expertise to create a good audio slideshow story. To best leverage the narrative power of audio slideshows, one needs both production and journalistic skills: Continue reading →

Posted in Sound photo slideshow | 1 Comment

A color palette optimized for data visualization

Posted on August 10, 2013 by mulinblog

If you don’t like the default colors in data visualizations such as bar chart or pie chart, I suggest you check out a color palette that is designed for use in data visualization. Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 2 Comments

3 ingredients of effective data visualization: audience, message, the right chart

Posted on July 13, 2013 by mulinblog

The purpose of data visualization is to convey messages, not to awe audiences with spectacular visuals. A data journalist, or anyone who works with data visualization, needs to know who the target audience is, what information the audience wants, and how to choose the right chart.

Continue reading →

Posted in Data journalism | 1 Comment