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Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Google News Lab have launched a new Data Skills for a news training programme for its members.
The training session, which is aimed at training 600 NUJ members, will commence on September 30 with a course titled: Fundamentals And Verification Of News.
The four-hour training will run through October 14, October 28 and November 11, 2021, with journalists selected in batches of 150 for each session in accordance with the COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Its curricula includes an advanced deep dive into search and image research tools, as well as fact-checking and verification with the goal of assisting Lagos members of the union to better understand how to use Google digital tools for research and reporting.
Chairman, NUJ Lagos State Council, Adeleye Ajayi, said the training would bring speed and accuracy into news production, adding: “Besides this, the training will help in factual reporting and update the knowledge of reporters.
“My sincere gratitude goes to Google NewsLab for the laudable initiative aimed at improving the skills of journalists, not only in Nigeria and Africa but also globally.”
The training modules are intended to aid in the development of skills required in contemporary journalism and will include in-depth discussions on a variety of digital topics such as online search methods, analyzing search trends, news verification and image search.
Google NewsLab Training Manager, Vincent Ryan, said: “For journalists, recent advances in digital technology present compelling new opportunities to find, verify and report news stories.
“Learning how to use digital tools for reporting can be a challenge and we hope that this digital skills workshop will give participants the knowledge and the confidence to use them in their reporting.”
The Google NewsLab is an open initiative created, especially for media professionals to help them create and distribute excellent journalism and news.
Its curriculum is designed to teach aspiring and experienced media professionals on digital trends that are changing journalism globally, as well as how to utilise new online and digital technologies to enhance productivity in their newsrooms.
Google has long reiterated its commitment to supporting the growth of the news industry in Africa through various initiatives including training on Data Journalism in 2017, which reached 6,000 journalists and publishers across the region.
Google announced a $300 million commitment in 2020, as part of its Google News Initiative to assist local publishers across the world to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and in July of this year, three Nigerian publishers were named among the 22 winners of the Google News Initiative’s second Middle East, Turkey and Africa Innovation Challenge, which provided $2.1 million financings to support projects in the regions.
“Google considers the media in Nigeria as critical partners in the role they play in providing high-quality and relevant information. Supporting the growth of Nigerian news publishers will invariably enable the media industry in the region to take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet and digital storytelling present,” Ryan added.