#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – links to lessons on using Pinterest

Director of community engagement & social media of Digital First Media Steve Buttry has compiled a list of “helpful things that others have written about Pinterest”, which include journalists themselves sharing how Pinterest is being used by newsrooms and other advice on using the platform, such as tracking the source of images.

He also helpfully links to his own advice on how journalists and newsrooms can use Pinterest.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – how to write an internship covering letter

Freelance journalist Chris Goodfellow has shared a covering letter he wrote which successfully landed him an internship at the Financial Times.

Writing on Media Spank Goodfellow states:

When applying for internships I found plenty of articles explaining how to write cover letters, but very few examples of actual applications. These are not the best four paragraphs I’ve ever penned (in fact I winced a little when I read them back this morning), but it did the trick and hopefully you’ll find it useful.

The four paragraphs are at this link.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – six ways to avoid common errors

Poynter has a list of six ways journalists can clean their copy, commit fewer errors.

1. Assume your copy will be published exactly as you wrote it.
2. Read your copy aloud slowly — and listen carefully — before sending it.
3. Be fair.
4. Stop at every number.
5. Read your email and respond to it.
6. Keep a list and check it twice.

It is worth reading the notes which explain each point.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – five free online portfolio sites

Elana Zak has blogged on 10,000 Words giving five free online portfolio sites journalists.

She recommends: WordPress, Cuttings.me (which we have written about previously), Pressfolios, Flavors and About.me.

The post describing each of the five portfolio options is at this link.

Here is a post we published last year on five great journalist portfolios.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – embed a photo slideshow using Pinterest

Before leaving WalesOnline to edit the Daily Post in North Wales last month, Alison Gow blogged about how the “limitations” of their current CMS inspired a workaround with digital journalist Gareth Rogers coming up with the idea of using Pinterest to showcase photos.

It may seem like a small thing, but when you’ve got images that the reader would want to see in more detail (or an infographic, for example) it can be somewhat restrictive.

Anyway, Gareth came up with a clever workaround (necessity really is the mother of invention) to show off a series of fashion photos from the Aintree race meet – he pinned the images to our Piinterest news board, and then embedded them back on the site. Now, when you click on the image, it opens, large-scale, in a new tab.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – iPhone photography advice

With journalists often turning to their iPhone to capture images to illustrate a news story, here are some tips collected by the International Journalists’ Network, based on the advice of Cindi Hobgood, founder of Scout Photo Expeditions.

See the IJNet list here.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – data and visualisation blogs

Flowingdata.com has compiled an updated list of blogs on data and visualisation which may be of use to data journalists.

The list includes a section on journalism-related blogs, including chartsnthings, “a personal blog of data sketches from the New York Times graphics department”.

See full list.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – improving self-editing skills

On the Independent Journalists blog, part of the Society of Professional Journalists blog network, sports content editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch David Sheets outlines some of his tips for better self-editing.

Tips include ensuring your work has “reason and focus”, consider “brevity when writing briefly” and to make use of active verbs which he says “can stand alone and bear their own weight”.

See the full post here.

Tipster: Rachel McAthy

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – dive into the data journalism handbook

Any journalist interested in data journalism and improving their skills in this area should take a look at the new data journalism handbook, published this weekend. The handbook started as a draft guide pulled together in just 48 hours at last year’s Mozilla Festival in London.

Contributors to the guide include data journalism experts from outlets including the Guardian, Wired.co.uk, the BBC, the Open Knowledge Foundation and the New York Times. The guide includes advice on finding and using data, with plenty of case studies along the way.

The handbook also states that it “can be freely copied, redistributed and reused under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license”.

Contributors to the Data Journalism Handbook retain copyright over their respective contributions, and have kindly agreed to release them under the terms of this license

Journalism.co.uk runs training courses in data journalism. There are two levels: introduction to data journalism, being held on 9 or 28 May, and intermediate data journalism, which will run on 29 May. Both are being run by Kevin Anderson.

Those looking to expand their skills quickly can book on one of the introduction to data journalism courses and the intermediate course. If you book both options the cost is at the reduced rate. 

This is the last time we will be offering this course led by Kevin Anderson due to his commitments – so take advantage of the final opportunity to learn from this former BBC and Guardian journalist.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – 30 specialist search engines

The Next Web has compiled a list of 30 specialist search engines.

Journalists may find TinEye and PicSearch particularly helpful when verifying photos from social media, Greplin handy to search their own accounts, and should take a look at some of the blog and social media search options.

The list is well worth reading and bookmarking. I would add Topsy to the list of search engines journalists should know about.

Tipster: Sarah Marshall

If you have a tip you would like to submit to us at Journalism.co.uk email us using this link– we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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