Google launches Digital Journalism in Africa

For media, the world has changed rapidly and dramatically. Daily, we hear about journalists' frustrations with shrinking newsrooms, increased juniorisation as the onslaught of online hits print newsrooms even harder, and the lack of time or skills to transform those newsrooms into digital journalism hubs so that the press can survive and thrive in the digital era.
Thanks to technology, the 24-hour news cycle has become an instant news cycle. Traditional publishers are often struggling to compete with their digital counterparts, and both face the challenge of social platforms that enable everyone with an internet connection to serve as a kind of reporter on the scene to post live news, as it breaks, anywhere in the world, using nothing more complicated than a mobile phone.
Preserving an independent press is, however, critical for our societies, and it does not serve anyone for that press to be drowned out under a deluge of social media content and fake news.
If not for the independent press, the biggest stories of the last 100 years - from Watergate to #Guptaleaks - would have remained untold. Without an independent press, we would be uninformed over what is happening in war zones, boardrooms, farms and towns, from our biggest cities to sparsely populated islands.
Indeed, advances in digital technology have presented journalists with compelling opportunities to tell stories in new, interactive and engaging ways.
But learning how to use these digital tools can be daunting - especially for journalists in Africa, where robust digital integration in news and storytelling remains a challenge.
Across the continent, few journalism institutions offer training programmes in digital tools and news organisations lack the capability to leverage new digital technologies in their reporting.
To that end, the Google News Lab is announcing its support for an Africa-wide Digital Journalism initiative that aims to help journalists, newsrooms, and editors better understand and utilise Google's tools and the web to be able to tell better stories.
Working in partnership with the World Bank and Code for Africa, Google aims to train 6000 journalists in 12 major African cities - Abuja, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Casablanca, Dakar, Freetown, Dar es Salaam, Kampala, and Yaounde - between now and February 2018.
The training sessions will focus on developing skills such as mobile reporting, mapping, data visualisation, data verification, new forms of storytelling, and online fact checking.
Training will take place face-to-face in three newsrooms in each city, starting now. Training sessions will be held twice a month for the duration of the initiative.
This will be supported by a massive open on-line course, which will be made freely available on-line from the beginning of August. The on-line course will cover a range of web concepts and practices for digital journalists.