For journalists, recent advances in digital technology present compelling new opportunities to discover, tell, and share stories. But learning how to use new digital tools for reporting can be intimidating or even daunting. This is particularly true in Africa, where digital integration in news and storytelling often remains a challenge. Few journalism institutions offer training programs in digital tools, and news organizations often lack the capability to use new digital technologies in their reporting.
That’s why Google is supporting a new initiative that will offer journalists across Africa training in skills like mobile reporting, mapping, data visualization, verification, and fact checking. In partnership with the World Bank and Code For Africa, this project aims to train more than 6,000 journalists by February 2018, in 12 major African cities: Abuja, Cape Town, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kampala, Lagos, Nairobi and Yaounde. By providing the instruction and support to better use available digital tools available, we hope to empower journalists across Africa to produce cutting-edge and compelling reporting.
Training will take place in three formats:
1. Beginning June 15, Google will hold in-person training sessions on topics ranging from displaying data with an interactive map to effective reporting with a mobile device. In each city, they’ll conduct trainings in three newsrooms and hold trainings twice a month for the duration of the initiative.
2. In August, a massive open online course (MOOC) will be made freely available online, covering a range of web concepts and practices for digital journalists.
3. They will also hold monthly study groups in collaboration with Hacks/Hackers (a global meetup organization) to provide more focused, in-person instruction. These monthly meetings will take place in Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Please visit www.academy.codeforafrica.org to learn more and to register.
