This spring The Meteor is teaming up with the Centre for Investigative Journalism to offer a comprehensive twelve session training course in community journalism. If you have ever been disappointed by media coverage in your area before, this is a chance to set the record straight by producing the news yourself; covering the stories you know are important to your community.
The free course (worth £100s if you had to pay for it) beginning in April will teach you the fundamentals of quality journalism, and enable you to tell stories confidently by writing articles and producing multimedia creations.
Background
Since our launch in October 2016, The Meteor has aimed to provide a platform where a diverse range of voices can be heard, particularly those that are shut out of the mainstream media. Part of this ongoing endeavour is to regularly open up opportunities for people who want to get involved in local independent media.
Last year The Meteor held its first course, which saw a group of aspiring journalists trained by tutors who were all National Union of Journalists members. Participants went on to publish work on The Meteor website, including James, who will be acting as a mentor on this year’s course.
James joined The Meteor Journalism Course last year due to a “desire for years to get some words published and make a difference.” He explained how the course gave him the confidence to get writing:
“It’s because of the course that I am now confident enough to pursue a career in writing and freelance work. The course content was varied and interesting, and it was great to meet other people on the course from different backgrounds. I particularly appreciated the chance to have my work published through The Meteor, and still write for it now.”
The course
You will receive training from industry professionals on how to find and produce quality stories, ongoing mentoring and support from The Meteor team and opportunities put your new skills into practice and have your work published. A comprehensive course guide will be provided to applicants, in summary, the course will cover:
- Writing news and feature stories
- Holding power to account, including local government, using the Freedom of Information Act 2001 and Companies House
- Photojournalism, video journalism and data visualisation
- Social media and other IT relevant to journalism
- The current media landscape, its problems, and viable alternatives to traditional media outlets
- The law and ethics in journalism
You don’t need any prior training in journalism to join this course, just an interest in telling Manchester’s untold stories and a desire to contribute towards positive change in Manchester’s media landscape.
We are looking for a diverse group of people who:
- Live or work in Manchester
- Care about, and have an active interest in, their communities
- Want to amplify underrepresented voices in Manchester
- Want to investigate and hold power to account in Manchester
- Have an interest in sharing stories – whether that be through writing, filmmaking, data visualisation or other creative methods of storytelling
- Want to get stuck into reporting with The Meteor
The course will take place in Manchester city centre, starting with an introductory event on Saturday 14 April. Evening workshops will then follow at the Greenfish Resource Centre every Thursday evening from 19 April to 14 June 2018, 6:45pm until 9pm.
In addition to the evening sessions, there will be a number of opportunities to go out and report on events across Manchester, begin investigations in teams and produce work with support from The Meteor editorial team. These opportunities are a key element of the training and will be a requirement for completing the course.
How to apply
To apply for the course you will need to submit the following:
- A short statement saying why you would like to take the course, your contact details, and a brief explanation of your submitted content, explaining when and why it was produced (200 words max).
- An article or video you have produced. This can be in any style and format and should be around 400 words, or 1–3mins long. A section taken from a longer piece is acceptable, and so is a piece produced specifically for this application.
Deadline for applications is 17 March 2018. Applications should be emailed to:
editor@themeteor.org
Get in touch
There is support available if you need help with your application, want to chat further about your suitability or have any questions about the course. Just email us or call 07504 331959.
We look forward to receiving your applications!
The Meteor
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