By Godwin Otang
Selected Journalists in Cross River State have been charged to employ digital, data and visualizations to make their job more effective and impactful.
This was the nutshell at a one-day Data Journalism Training held in Calabar, a few days ago.
The training which is the third in the annual series featured journalists from the print, electronic, and online media organizations and was focused on creating compelling data-driven stories for policy reforms.
The Programs Officer of BudgIT Foundation, Deborah Onwubuya said the training which has been held for about three years is to help journalists in visualizing their stories as well as using data to accomplish the three functions of the media – inform, educate and entertain.
She enjoined the Pressmen saying: “We have had recurring participants tell their stories in very impressive and compelling ways. We hope that we can have journalists tell good stories to act as a voice for the citizens and to compel public or societal reforms and advocacy.”
The Senior Digital Designer of the organization Bukola Onwordi, highlighted a strategy to adopt for each story and best practices.
The training, which had about 20 journalists, featured practical sessions and demonstrations by participants under the guidance of resource persons from BudgIT.
The journalist meanwhile, expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the training; pledging to put into practice what they have learned.