Google plans training for 6,000 journalists, entrepreneurs on future of media

Google is collaborating with Code For Africa (CfA) and the World Bank’s Global Media Development Programme, to help 6,000 journalists across 12 African cities “build the future of media.” A nine-month long collaboration between the two entities and Google News Lab, will provide the journalists and media entrepreneurs with a combined mentorship and online tuition opportunity, Google announced on Friday.

Google had said it sought to develop the next generation of reporters working to inform, engage, and inspire people around the globe, shortly after the launch of its Google News Lab back in 2016.

“The web and digital tools present an interesting array of options for journalists, but learning how to use these tools can be a daunting task for many media people. While the global news industry faces a knowledge challenge with regards to digital tools, Africa, by virtue of its non-digital education systems, faces even greater odds in the battle for digital integration in news and storytelling.

“In Nigeria for instance, only a few of the journalism institutions offer training programs that focus on Web tools, and many top news organisations lose out on stories due to their inability to utilise newer and more engaging digital techniques,” Daniel Sieberg, Head of Training & Development at Google News Lab said.

With the surge of many digital media entrepreneurs in Africa, coupled with the fact that traditional news media on the continent are facing stiffer competitions from their digital counterparts, the upcoming digital journalism training offers a level playing field for journalists who are dip toeing into the digital media entrepreneurship space.

Together with Code for Africa, a data journalism and civic technology initiative operating across Africa and World Bank’s Global Media Development Programme, Google, through its News Lab initiative, has created a training programme that will take place in three formats, over the next nine months (to February 2018) across 12 major African cities – Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Casablanca, Dakar, Freetown, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, and Yaounde.

“With the Digital Journalism initiative we want to contribute to the growth of Africa’s news and media ecosystem by training present and future practitioners on how to employ existing tools to tell stories, and support them to create locally-relevant tools that will reshape how Africans consume news,” Sieberg said.

It will be recalled that the technology giant has since the inception og Google News Lab, has offered courses such as Investigative Reporting, Data Journalism, Multimedia Storytelling, Publishing and Monetisation, as well as Immersive and Inclusive Storytelling, among others.

With Code for Africa, an organisation which trains and supports journalists and civic activists to better understand and use web tools for news reporting and storytelling, Google aims to empower African journalists as well as media entrepreneurs by giving them the necessary support to better understand the web and how to use the tools available to them online, Justin Arenstein, Director at Code for Africa + African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR), said in a Medium article on the subject.

The training, which will begin on Thursday, June 15 2017, offers in-person training sessions that will be held in the aforementioned 12 cities of Africa.

In each city, Google will conduct training in three newsrooms and training will be held twice a month for the duration of the initiative, an e-mailed statement from Google’s Communication and PR rep for Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade read.

Beginning August, a massive open online course (MOOC) will be made freely available online, covering a range of web concepts and practices for digital journalists, the tech company said in the statement.

Added to the training is a monthly study group meet-ups in collaboration with Hacks/Hackers to provide more focused, in-person instruction and monthly meetings will take place in Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

In April last year, Google has announced it would train one million young people in Africa within a year, with the hopes of raising thousands of entrepreneurs through various digital skills.

Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, Country Manager for Google Nigeria had said: “The Web is a driver of economic growth, and is transforming society as a whole. People must be equipped, through training and reskilling to make use of the tools, and take advantage of it for entrepreneurship, employment and e-inclusion,” while Bunmi Banjo, Head of Brand & Digital Skills at Google had said that the time that the company was aiming at helping about 70 per cent become more employable, while many of the participants on the trainig programme were expected to improve on their various busineses.

Mid March this year, Google announced that it had fulfilled its commitment to training one million African in digital skills, saying that: “We have reached our target early, and we have committed ourselves to train even more Africans in digital skills in the coming year.”

Speaking further, Banjo, said: “Having one million digitally skilled young people in Africa is good for everyone. If young people have the right skills, they will build businesses, create jobs and boost economic growth across the continent.”

She added that as the company expands the initiative to reach more local areas across the continent, “we hope to see more impact in everyday lives of Africans,” Banjo added.

Banjo had told the Cable News Network (CNN) in a recent interview that Google is planning to train at least another million by the end of 2017 and to offer courses in local languages including Hausa and Swahili.

“I know a million on its own sounds big but we are talking about a continent that has 500 million people that have the potential to contribute to the economy. A million doesn’t look so big anymore,” she told the news network.