As part of my ongoing personal and professional development, I followed a distance learning course on Internet Journalism via the London School of Journalism during 2022-2023. I had my eye on this course for many years and enjoyed working my way through at my own pace. I started in May 2022, and had 2 years to complete the course – and finished in October 2023.
This post was to track and share my progress. For more information about the lessons, and the course in general, you can visit the link at the end. These sections below are some notes and links to my assignments. For each, I received written feedback from one of their lecturers.
Lesson 1: An introduction to web writing
Assignment was to submit a bio and analyse a website – I chose www.dutchnews.nl
Lesson 2: Online journalism
This assignment was a tough one for me, as it revolved around investigative journalism. Many of these kind of stories involve violence, corruption and other aspects I find very difficult to remain objective about! I wrote an article about different tools that investigative journalists can use.
Lesson 3: Writing for the Web
I researched and published a news item:
Thanks to my friend, Natali, for helping me brainstorm for ideas when I had writer’s block!
Lesson 4: Readers & Markets
For this assignment I edited a news story and also analysed the market for a potential publication I could write for – I chose Holland Times.
Lesson 5: Directing Your Writing
This was a fun assignment where I had to choose between an interview or travel article. I decided to write about my recent “Holiday in the Harz” which I published on my Dutch Australian blog:
Lesson 6: Freelancing on the web
There are many challenges when writing for web-based publications and this assignment reminded us of the risks and rewards, and with a focus on finding PAID work as a journalist. I again analysed www.dutchnews.nl as a potential outlet and approached them with a pitch.
Lesson 7: Journalists and the law
This was an interesting module and a crucial one for journalists. Of course it was UK based, so I need to also look into the NL/EU laws.
Lesson 8: Citizen Journalism, blogs, vlogs and podcasts
For this, I created the following vlog:
Lesson 9: Google and social media
This module falls under my area of expertise so there was not much new here for me, but was good to take some time to reflect and summarise my own online presence.
Lesson 10: Online editing
Searching for spelling and grammatical errors, as well as creating headlines was the focus of this module. I enjoyed later talking through this assignment with a journalist friend, Lily-Anne from DutchBuzz. Together we experimented with taking this a step further beyond the coursework and tried out Chat GPT! It was indeed useful to generate new headlines that we would have not thought of myself. Ultimately as an editor, you need to make the final call, but using AI for ideas works well.
Lesson 11: Online layout and design
Again I analysed existing news sites and chose one with “good” online layout and design: https://www.abc.net.au/
This Australian national news site presents a wide array of information in a well-balanced way and I used the C.R.A.P. principles as a framework to explain why I believe this website works. https://vwo.com/blog/crap-design-principles/
Lesson 12: Reflection on the course
What I’ve gained from this course
One of the biggest benefits was to increase my confidence. Following lessons through a reputable educational institution has given me a broader and more solid understanding of pursuing journalism as either a career, or a side income. Even more importantly, it’s highlighted to me what I don’t enjoy, for example covering breaking news and crime etc or working on tight deadlines.
What I’m still lacking
I have already signed up for an online course to brush up on my English grammar. I also need to research the Dutch laws relating to journalism.
Action plan for the next 12 months
My main paid job is teaching at The Hague University, as well as freelance teaching and giving workshops via Zestee. So my focus for now is not yet on chasing paid writing and my time is limited. However over the next 12 months, I intend to spend a few hours a week to continue to build my presence and experience across various platforms, with the view that writing can be an additional source of income in the future. I created a plan on how I will split this time.
Graduated!
I completed this course in October 2023, and received a diploma with honours.
Want to know more?
https://www.lsj.org/courses/distance-learning/internet-journalism
Exploring the journalism exhibit at the “Beeld en Geluid” Museum (Image and Sound) in The Hague.
Zestee 
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