Journalists and other professionals interested in social media can participate in this free five-week course.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, through its Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) program, is offering “Social Media for Journalists: The Basics.” The course will be held Feb. 3 — March 2.

Students will learn about the best journalistic uses of professional Facebook and Twitter accounts, where to find sources and story ideas on social media, how to verify information, ethical considerations, how to cultivate an audience and a brand, develop a content strategy, and measure success on social media.

The course will be divided into five weekly modules, each with a different instructor and topic.

The instructors are:

• Ryan Thornburg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Sharif Durhams, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
• Craig Silverman, Spundge and Poynter’s Regret the Error
• Daniel Victor, The New York Times
• Amanda Zamora, ProPublica

The course includes videos, tutorials, reading materials, exercises and quizzes. Students can take the course at the time of their choice, but each weekly module will have deadlines for submitting quizzes and participating in the forums.

The certificate’s cost is US$30 and will be issued to students who actively participate in the course and comply with most of the requirements.

For more information, click here: https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/en/blog/00-14933-%E2%80%9Csocial-media-journalists%E2%80%9D-knight-center%E2%80%99s-next-massive-online-course-sign-now