Local community groups in the West Midlands will be taught online news and communication skills as part of a new initiative promoting participatory media.

Digital agency Meshed Media's News Dash project will work with a selection of charities and community organisations to create an online news hub for the area.

Participants will receive mentoring and training in how to use traditional and digital newsgathering and storytelling to "introduce them to ways of getting their stories and their messages heard", Meshed Media's director Chris Unitt told Journalism.co.uk.

"We're also exploring the ways in which (for want of better terms) traditional and new forms of publishing and journalism offer different opportunities and lend themselves to different approaches. In the first stage we'll be visiting those organisations, looking for the stories that we can draw out of them and putting them online using a range of text, audio, video and whatever else is appropriate," he said.

The scheme will culminate with a newspaper project produced by the 4iP-backed Newspaper Club. The print editions will be given to delegates at the Hello Digital conference in Birmingham in October.

Those signed up to the project so far include community radio station Blaze FM and the scheme is supported by a range of organisations including Talk About Local and Birmingham City Council.