Graphic Workers Undergo Training in Data Journalism

TEN members of staff of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) have undergone a three-day intensive training in data journalism intended to build their capacity to bring innovative and investigative skills to bear on their reporting.

The training formed part of the company's initiative to undertake a data journalism policy, strategy development and an implementation plan for its newsroom in order to build capacity in the use of techniques in data journalism.

Administered by the International Institute for ICT Journalism — Penplusbytes, the training brought together 10 selected members of the Graphic team that comprised reporters, designers, and IT and online personnel.

Participants were introduced to data journalism, the processes involved in data journalism,various sources of data and how to analyse data-driven stories.
Officials from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and a data expert took participants through statistics in general and ways of extracting datafrom unstructured sources.

At a ceremony to present certificates to the participants, the Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said the companywas playing a vanguard Tole in the art of assessing, processing and visualising data to tell eye-catching, easy-to-understand and fact-based data stories which mostly lay beyond the power of the normal traditional journalism.

In his remarks, the President of Penplusbytes, Mr Kwami Ahiabenu II, said: "We are excited to work with the GCGL on the data journalism capacity-building project and confident that the data journalism skills and knowledge of team members will be strengthened, thereby putting them - in a better position to leverage the techniques of data journalism in innovative news gathering and presentation processes."

According to Maxwell Adombila of Graphic Business, "the training was good and very insightful. it exposed us to what data journalism is about, how beneficial it is to readers, how we can get concrete stories from it and the processes we can use in doing that."
The 10 participants are expected to produce one major data-driven story which would be published by the Graphic team.