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Reporting fundamentals certificate

Reporting is the heart and soul of what we do. Use these courses to firm up the skills that will help you to be successful on any beat. After you spend a little time with each segment here, use what you learned in discussions with colleagues and editors.

  • Don’t count words. Make your words count.

    Don’t count words. Make your words count.

    Writing concise, to the point stories isn’t about cutting until you’re under the limit. It’s about writing the story with the right words and nothing more. We’ll talk about finding the one thing that will drive your story, how a zero draft can start you in the right place, the magic of reading aloud and the secret sauce of short yet authoritative writing (that one, as they say, may shock you).

  • Reporting tools for early-career journalists, Part I

    Reporting tools for early-career journalists, Part I

    Google Basics: Advanced search, micro-search sites, Trends, MapChecking, fact-checking, etc.

  • How to find diverse sources to build trust, better serve our readers and grow audience

    Enterprise reporters Romi Ruiz, Marc Ramirez and Jessica Guynn talk about how they work to build trust with diverse audiences and find story ideas about communities that represent different experiences in the United States.

  • Fact-Checking IV: Fact-Checking Videos

    Was the video doctored? How can we see when and where a video was first published? We’ll explore how with Watch Frame-by-Frame and Amnesty International’s YouTube Dataviewer.

  • Fact-Checking III: Put Your Photo Fact-Checking Skills to the Test

    We’ll give you three photos to fact-check with context shared (for real) on social media about each photo. Your job is to reverse image search each photo to see if the context is accurate or if the photo has been misrepresented.

  • Fact-Checking II: Fact-Checking Photos

    How can we see when and where a photo was first published? We’ll explore how with Google Image Search, TinEye and FotoForensics.

  • Fact-Checking I: Basic Fact-Checking Tools

    Introduction to basic tools like Google Fact Check Explorer, Google Earth, the Verification Handbook and First Draft News resources.

  • Verification tools

    Bad information is dangerous, especially in uncertain times. Learn how to verify images and video, investigate social media posts, and identify misinformation with open-source intelligence tools.

  • Building a public records mindset

    A discussion on developing a documents state of mind — the key to doing solid watchdog work on a beat.

  • Five case studies that illuminate our ethics and social media policies

    Being proactive and communicating our standards clearly helps, but sometimes we slip up. Here’s a primer on what to watch out for, and how to steer clear of trouble.

  • 50 tools for writing well with Roy Peter Clark

    50 tools for writing well with Roy Peter Clark

    Organized into four sections, “Nuts and Bolts,” “Special Effects,” “Blueprints for Stories,” and “Useful Habits,” this series is infused with more than 200 examples from journalism and literature.