Digital Content Creation

Module 1: Know your target audience

▪ Where do ideas come from?
▪ How to zero in on an audience
▪ Mapping your target audience
▪ Influencers, agreed realities, and emotional payoffs
▪ Using mapping to discover target audiences
▪ Using social media for insights
▪ Developing target audience statements
▪ Pitching target audiences

Module 2: Persuade your target audience

▪ What is learning and why is it important for understanding audiences?
▪ How do people learn? Information, skills, and behaviours
▪ The order of decision making
▪ The ingredients of persuasive aims
▪ Why you need different credible sources
▪ Why you should craft emotional appeals
▪ The benefits of formulating a logical approach
▪ Investigating examples – persuading target audiences
▪ Applying persuasion to your own context

Module 3: Storytelling for media professionals 

▪ Narrative journalism versus information journalism
▪ The eight essential elements of Story
▪ Symbols and universal truths
▪ Studying real examples illustrating the eight essential elements of Story
▪ Story detective sessions: develop your own story
▪ The micro story: story in a tweet
▪ Create characters to engage audiences
▪ The importance of character: identifying people like us
▪ The types and tropes of drama characters
▪ Character histories and how to craft them
▪ Hero journeys and creating powerful character growth

Module 4: Creative formats to engage audiences 

▪ How do we tell stories using media?
▪ Ten engaging formats and what makes them unique
▪ Which formats are good for conveying information versus conveying emotions?
▪ Types of formats and the ideas box
▪ Combining ideas creatively
▪ Investigating formats: interviewing
▪ Investigating formats: the discussion
▪ Practice: engaging audiences with the discussion format

You will also:

▪ Receive training in basic audio, using zoom recorders and popular audio editing software for radio or podcasting
▪ Learn how to capture video on mobile technology, edit footage and publish to social media. This includes basic shots, movement and sound for mobile
▪ Learn the basics of photography 

In the second week we put theory into practice, using in-depth skills, such as:

▪ Advanced Video journalism: Editing on standard editing software and exporting final products for broadcast on traditional and digital platforms.

▪ Advanced techniques: 360-degree video, participatory video, immersive 3D video and storytelling, as well as live video streaming.

▪ Advanced podcasting: podcast best practices and monetization.

▪ Multimedia Blogging: Introduction to WordPress, including transforming multimedia into share-able blogs.

▪ Vlogging: YouTube, influencers, virality, how to manage vlogs and YouTube monetization.

▪ Social media: strategy, tools, analytics, and best practices.

▪ How to implement multimedia workflows into your newsroom.

In the third week, you will work on your own, in-depth core project. You’ll also put theory into practice by entering a working newsroom environment, and producing a multimedia blog, using story, video and podcast.