-Pam Jenny/
Journalists in the country have been urged to properly employ data in the course of writing stories. This was made known at a one day Data Tools for Media Reporting Workshop organised by Google for Journalists in Lagos.
In his opening remarks, the Communications and Public Affairs Manager,Google West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade,the aim of the workshop is to equip journalists and media managers with the necessary tools they need when gathering data to use for their work, ” The goal of this workshop is to help journalists know how to use the various google tools when they work.Journalism is dynamic.Hence,it is not the way it used to be.Journalists need to keep abreast of these tools because they are the conscience of the nation.”
Speaking further, Kola-Ogunlade noted that it is imperative for pen-pushers to take themselves through the School of Data in order to tell stories.Therefore,they must define their data driven investigation,get the files they need,verify their data,clean their materials thoroughly,analyse and present them in a well-balanced manner.
The workshop also took journalists through the rudiments of using Google tools such as Google search,trends,forms and sheets among others.
Also speaking at the workshop,Nigeria Editor at Africa Check,David Ajikobi took participants through the rudiments of fact checking,he stated that journalists should avoid being harbingers of misinformation and disinformation,just as facts are different from opinion.He said, “As journalists,it is important that you learn the basic tools needed to carry out a fact check.However, even if these tools are at your disposal, the most important tool that you need to access these other tools is your brain.You must be sharp, fast and curious while at it.”
He also used the opportunity to share other fact checking ways with journalists such as how to use the Google Image Reverse Search,Tineye.com,Youtube Data viewer,Twitter Analytics,Botometer.com,et al which are all tools for verification.
Bringing the workshop to a close,Blaize Agbor, a visual journalist harped on the need for journalists to visualise their storytelling through the use of visuals such as Infographics, “Visualization means you are telling your story in a simplified manner.”
Agbor pointed out that although the old medium of storytelling is not going into extinction,there are new audiences that must be catered for,”It is imperative that you make your visual storytelling simple,accurate,comprehensible,reuseable and shareable.For instance, you can simplify your stories in Infographics and post them on instagram and other social media platforms.
At the end of the workshop,participants who cut across several newsrooms,bloggers and freelancers went home with an indepth knowledge on Data Journalism.
