ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (October 6, 2026) — News audiences are increasingly turning to social media and short-form video for news. But converting your reporting into a TikTok, Instagram Reel or YouTube Short can be challenging, especially if you want to stop the thumbs of your scrolling audience.
In July 2026, Poynter offered its first live online Vertical Video for Creators and Journalists course. It filled within a few weeks, with enough interest to open a waiting list. Now, Poynter has launched a self-directed course, so journalists can start anytime, learn at their own pace, from wherever they are. Participants can also earn a Poynter certificate of completion.
Poynter’s new Vertical Video Basics for Journalists course gives journalists a practical process for turning original reporting into compelling social video.
Led by Poynter’s audience engagement team, Josie Hollingsworth, TyLisa C. Johnson and Ellen Hine, the course walks participants through the process of scripting, filming and editing vertical video, developing an authentic on-camera presence and building a strategy for testing what works. Hollingsworth says: “A journalist’s experience, authority around a topic, reporting, research, and instincts are the most powerful tools in their toolbox to create informative and, I daresay, entertaining videos.”
Participants get approximately two hours of on-demand instruction, hands-on activities and five downloadable resources, including a visual-first script template, social video story structure template and video metrics tracker. After completing the course, learners can take a randomized final assessment and earn a Poynter certificate of completion.
The course is specifically designed to be beginner-friendly and help journalists overcome the barriers that can make vertical video feel intimidating. Whether you’ve never filmed yourself, aren’t sure how to edit a Reel or simply need a better process for turning your reporting into video, you’ll leave with practical tools and a repeatable approach you can start using right away.
“There is a natural imposter syndrome (feeling like an outsider or not being skilled enough), when really, everyday people create videos and post them online all the time with no forethought at all!” says Hollingsworth. The course is self-directed, so you can return to the lessons, templates and tools whenever you’re working on your next video.
One of the biggest shifts, especially for journalists accustomed to the written word, is learning how to hook an audience quickly. “Within those first three to six seconds, that’s all you have for capturing the attention of an online audience,” says Hollingsworth. Her advice: Write five or six different hooks, try them with your video and see which one works best when it all comes together.
The course draws on Poynter’s own experience using vertical video to reach news audiences. Poynter’s social channels reach 700,000 users on video platforms each month, and Poynter has launched 10 video series across three of their own brands in five years. Poynter’s vertical video experience extends across its brands, including MediaWise and PolitiFact, with initiatives such as MediaWise’s Teen Creator Network and collaborations with creators such as Dave Jorgenson of Local News International and V Spehar of Under the Desk News.
With Poynter’s new course offering, the audience engagement team aims to help journalists stop the scroll, earn attention and make sure strong reporting reaches audiences where they’re already spending their time.
Media Contact
Jennifer Orsi
Vice President, Publishing and Local News Initiatives
Poynter Institute
jorsi@poynter.org
About the Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is the gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
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