Our community media project – Talking About My Generation team has launched a new programme of training.

The training is for our existing community reporters and members of the public over the age of 50 across Greater Manchester who are interested in learning new skills.

These are the upcoming sessions in the My Gen Community Reporter Training series:

  • Writing News, Sports and Features – Friday, October 8 at Longsight Library between 1pm-3pm
  • Photography, video taking, and editing – Tuesday, December 7 – 10am until 12noon, Age UK Manchester. (Bring a phone or camera where possible to use during the session)
  • Interview training – interviewer and interviewee – Friday, February 4 Longsight Library between 1pm-3pm
  • Podcast training – host, guest, editing – Thursday, May 5 – 11am-1pm – at Longsight Library with Vic at Mic Media. 
  • How to create social media graphics, leaflets, and poster designs – Friday, June 10 (ONLINE) between 1pm-3pm
  • Social media training – Friday, September 9 – (ONLINE) between 1pm-3pm
  • WordPress management – editing and publishing stories – Friday, November 11 – (ONLINE) between 1pm-3pm
  • Video editing training – Thursday, December 8 – 1pm-3pm (ONLINE)

There are 5 free places to join us on each session and they book up fast so please do get in touch. Most sessions are run by Yellow Jigsaw director and former Manchester Evening News journalist Kirsty Day – along with other talented colleagues in the industry and one of the other community reporters.

Kirsty has more than 18 years experience of working in the media and is passionate about diversifying the media.

You can sign up to attend all sessions or mix and mix from the topics that spark your interest. For more information email changingtherecord@gmail.com 

Why become a community reporter?

You will become part of a team that creates online news content, podcasts, and printed magazines that are read by thousands of people every month.

Our aims are to:

  • Create lifestyle, wellbeing, nostalgia, and news content that our readership will enjoy.
  • Challenge ageist stereotypes in the media by presenting stories of people growing older in a positive way.
  • Ensure older people’s voices and views are incorporated into the topics that affect people of all ages.

Each reporter has the opportunity to develop their skills. As a news team, we meet regularly in our ‘newsroom’ to set the news agenda and explore the topics that we believe will resonate with our audience.

We support every reporter to perform their role in the following ways:

  • To believe their views and opinions matter and have the confidence to share them in the newsroom.
  • To be supportive of fellow reporters.
  • To be open to learning new skills and new ways of doing things.
  • To be compliant with NUJ code of conduct 
  • To be fair, honest, objective, and accurate with their reporting.
  • To give a voice to sectors of society without one.