Groundbreaking digital news academy off to a flying start

‘From the tiniest papers to the biggest titles … it doesn’t matter which newsgroup you come from, we’re providing a world-class curriculum that caters for everybody.’

News Corp journalist Charles Miranda in Ukraine in March this year.

Booted up and on the ground in Ukraine, veteran News Corp journalist Charles Miranda describes the challenge of being a “one-stop-shop operative” in a war zone earlier this year as one of the toughest of his career.

Miranda, who had previously spent 10 years as News Corp’s European correspondent, needed to be equipped with the necessary videography skills and an acute understanding of digital storytelling in order to deliver powerful reports of the conflict, via the platforms where the story had the greatest traction.

“That was one of the first times in my 30-year career that has been almost exclusively geared towards social media and filming, and letting people on the other side of the world, in Australia, see what was going on in real time,” he told The Australian.

While the seasoned journalist has mastered many skills over the years, the new and evolving realm of digital journalism has cast Miranda back to the classroom.

The senior correspondent is one of 50 students who, at the beginning of this year, enrolled in the pilot program of the Digital News Academy, a digital news training initiative designed to provide on-the-ground reporters, editors and publishers with the technological skills needed to deliver premium, multimedia storytelling.

A fresh cohort of 130 students, drawn from news organisations across Australia, will begin classes on Tuesday.

Star News cadet Mikayla Van Loon has been working alongside veteran journalist Charles Miranda as part of the Digital News Academy.

A collaboration between News Corp, Google and the University of Melbourne Business School, the Academy boasts an impressive panel of mentors, including the Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Butler and News Corp’s Campbell Reid, as well as digital news experts like the Wall Street Journal’s Julia Munslow and mobile filmmaker Jason van Genderen.

Academy trainees are drawn from across News Corp Australia’s various titles as well as small and regional publishers, including Australian Community Media.

Star News cadet journalist Mikayla Van Loon, who is based in the Yarra Valley region in Victoria, was recently grouped with Miranda for her class’s first video assignment at the Academy. She was tasked with editing footage from a recent special assignment that Miranda undertook in the NT, which will feature in News Corp publications and on its digital channels in coming weeks.

“It’s been amazing to be able to connect and network with journalists of all calibres and people like Charles – to have his knowledge and experience and to be able to ask him questions,” she said.

Miranda said grasping the digital sphere was “very much a necessity” for journalists in 2022 and beyond. “Technology, like journalism itself, is evolving so rapidly. For me, as someone who’s a bit older, it’s bloody hard to keep pace,” he said.

“So I think the strength of the Academy is that it can capture everyone, from those who are just starting out, to those who are – dare I use the V word – veterans.”