Chairman of the Lagos Chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Adeleye Ajayi has advised journalists to maximize skills acquired at the training provided by Google in Lagos.
Welcoming participants to the second batch of the Google News Lab training organised by the NUJ and Google in Lagos, Ajayi said it is the kind of training his members have longed for.
Ajayi who commended Google for the initiative to build the capacity of Lagos journalists, said about 150 journalists from various platforms have so far benefitted from the training in the first batch of the training.
“The training on fundamentals is very germane. I want to agree that this training will assist journalists to have better grasps on how to use these tools for researching and writing better stories,” Ajayi said.
He noted that the training will create room for learning about advanced search and enhance the capacity of journalists to use research tools for verification of their findings.
“This training will bring speed and accuracy to the profession as they are very vital to news gathering and news reporting. It will also inculcate in the reporter factual reporting and updated knowledge of what is being reported,” he said, enjoining participants to make the best use of the training to improve their work.
He also appreciated the management of the Google News Lab for improving the skills of journalists not only in Nigeria and Africa but also worldwide.
The training which lasted for six hours featured two facilitators; Ken Macharia, a Kenyan journalist who facilitated from Kenya and Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade who was the anchor trainer in Nigeria.
The training, titled ‘Fundamentals and Verification for News’ was designed to assist members of the NUJ-Lagos to better grasp how to use Google’s digital tools for researching and reporting better stories.
It also exposed participants to the use of advanced search, image verification and fact-checking necessary to authenticate contents and prevent fake news.
Participants learnt the use of Google tools to search for content and how to filter through files of various formats, Google trends, advanced search tools, Google image reversal tool among many other Google tools.
