Over 20 early to mid-level journalists have received training in data journalism from new media training organization, iJourno Africa.
The program– the second of its kind for 2021 was to introduce participants to the sourcing and effective use of data in news reporting.
It is part of iJourno Africa’s effort to give young media practitioners, including student journalists, the requisite knowledge and skill to incorporate data, new media tools, and digital skills in their work.
The one-day free training workshop was held on Saturday, July 10, 2021, at the University of Ghana’s School of Communication Studies in collaboration with campus-based media organization, Radio Univers.
The facilitators who took participants through the training were Bernard Avle, General Manager at Citi FM/Citi TV; Jonas Nyabor, the coordinator for iJourno Africa, and Yaw Antwi Owusu, Digital Media Designer at Citi FM/Citi TV.
Like the first edition held in May 2021, participants were taught how to source credible data, organize them and make them usable in news reporting.
They were also introduced to basic tools in Microsoft Excel for organizing raw data.
Another aspect of the training also focused on data visualization using particularly online tools.
Participants in the training were selected from the University of Ghana, Ghana Institute of Journalism, Jayee University, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, among other private media houses.
Others were also drawn from the media units of some state and private organizations.
“It was a great event, I learnt a lot. Thanks to the iJourno team”, one of the trainees said.
Another also remarked that “the training was an eye-opener in identifying modern trends in journalism, that is, data journalism.”
iJourno Africa is hoping to train about 200 student journalists across Ghana in data journalism and other useful new media skills by the end of 2021.
The organization is engaging other journalism institutions for possible partnerships to carry out the training in order to address the missing gaps in the practice of journalism in the country.
“We are considering requests from other parts of the country and based on the available resources, we will start holding similar training outside Accra. We are hopeful that the skills we introduce to the trainees will greatly help them improve their work as journalists and communication persons,” Jonas Nyabor noted.
The third edition of the 2021 iJourno Africa data journalism pieces of training is scheduled for later this month.