LearningLAB provides free to low-cost instruction in digital media and innovative journalistic practices to ethnic and community media journalists, as well as nonprofit professionals and students. Armed with these vital skills and knowledge, we believe that news organizations and nonprofit organizations can continue to thrive and be vibrant voices for the communities they serve.
Since its inception in 2009, Renaissance Journalism has convened two daylong conferences, each offering a diverse selection of workshops on digital journalism and storytelling; social media and community engagement; website development and design; and entrepreneurship and fundraising. The conferences, held at the state-of-the-art computer labs at San Francisco State University’s College of Extended Learning, drew about 100 people, representing local news organizations to nonprofit groups and foundations.
Read more about our 2010 LearningLAB.
In addition to the conferences, Renaissance Journalism has offered numerous all-day training “boot camps” where community journalists and nonprofit professionals have had the rare opportunity to learn multimedia and social media skills in a small-group setting for a nominal fee or for free.
In fall 2011, we piloted an innovative training approach that offered three bilingual training boot camps geared specifically to Latino news organizations in the San Francisco/Bay Area. The free, by-invitation-only training sessions were taught in Spanish and English and covered basic website development, multimedia storytelling using audio slideshows, and social media for reporting. In the future, we plan to offer customized, bilingual training sessions to more community-based news organizations and nonprofits.