GOOGLE Nigeria has over the weekend encouraged the media experts in the country on the use of modern data tools for effective reportage, especially of the forthcoming February general elections in the country.
Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Anglophone, West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, made the appeal at the Google Data Tools for Elections Reporting Workshop held in Lagos.
Ogunlade , noted that there were various useful tools such as Google Advance Search, Google Trends, Social Media Streams, Google Alert and Tabula which could be used in sourcing data.
He confirmed that the tools would help the media to get the picture of what was happening at a particular time at different places and getting it to the public.
The manager said that these tools had actually eased off the challenges of manpower, expensive time and technical skills which were experienced by media houses.
“These tools can be used to monitor trends about elections in real time, whereby impressions about candidates and even the party are seen.
“With the tools, you can come out with creative visualisation that helps you to communicate your news to the public,’’ he said.
The Google for election workshop was a hands-on certificate programme focused on using social media tools, visualisation and citizen reporting tools in “unearthing’’ and telling elections-based stories.
Source: Guardian Newpaper Nigeria
