Want to learn some of the latest skills in journalism… for free?

We have a lot of fun putting together JesmondLocal and using the web, radio, TV, social media and yes… even print… to tell stories about Jesmond and its people.

But we believe in journalism – or story-telling – that is inclusive, not exclusive. We believe that the emerging and evolving skills, tools and techniques used by journalists shouldn’t be locked away within a “profession”, but made accessible to anyone who has a story to tell and wants to tell it in as accurate, truthful and engaging a way as possible.

Each year we take on around 15 journalism students and share with them what (little) we know, then let them learn “on the job” on Jesmond.

And now, this May, we’re going to try something even bolder. We’re going to invite volunteers from the Jesmond community to do the same – learn the essential skills, tools and techniques of journalism… in just one “hack day”.

You can hear here what the Radio 4 Today programme had to say about some bootcamps we ran in 2012:

As part of the Jesmond Community Festival, JesmondLocal will be hosting a “hack day” from 9am to 5pm on Saturday 18th May – when volunteers will receive instruction and practical advice from a team of experts and practising journalists, including representatives from Media Trust, Newcastle University and JesmondLocal - before being given an assignment to complete before the 5pm deadline!

Would you like to be one of our volunteers? Email editor@jesmondlocal.com by the end of Saturday 11th May, telling us a little bit about who you are and why you’d like to enrol.

We look forward to hearing from you!