Tag Archives: Journalism

Announcing new courses from Google News Initiative to help newsrooms continue innovating

In 2018 we launched the Google News Initiative India Training Network, an affirmation of our deep commitment to supporting trusted, authoritative journalism. Along with the Google News Lab, this network has helped train over 35,000 journalists across India to date, to efficiently use free digital tools and resources that help elevate quality journalism, get empowered for sustainable growth, and drive newsroom innovation using cutting-edge technology.


These courses have imparted skills such as the effective use of Google search operators; using reporting-friendly tools such as site-archiving and audio transcription, using web monitoring via Trends and Alerts, and tips on how to verify content through reverse visual searches and geolocating images.


To kick off our work this year, we are pleased to offer the following Google News Initiative training courses as part of our roster of offerings:


Data journalism and visualization | Data GIF Maker, Flourish, Sheets, Earth, Maps, Timelapse: Learn how to find and visualize data easily – no special graphic designing or coding skills needed! By accessing open data and using free tools, pick up skills on collating information and turning that into simple graphs, charts or marker maps. Create richly visual projects with Google Earth and Earth Studio for more compelling storytelling. 


Fundamentals | Google Search Operators, Trends, Alerts, Website Analysis: This series will help equip you with the basic tools needed to work more efficiently. From making the best out of Google Drive to smartly using search operators to scour for information, this training looks to arm journalists and editors with handy free tools that can drive deeper reporting. 


Digital verification | Reverse Visual Search, Factcheck Explorer, Geolocation, Earth, Street View: One of the biggest challenges facing news organisations today is distinguishing what is real from what isn’t. From identifying altered imagery and manipulated video to identifying and stopping the spread of falsehoods, this session will help you identify the full range of misinformation, disinformation and outright falsehoods that are so often circulated. 


Specialized courses | Podcasting, Pinpoint, Environmental journalism tools, digital security, mobile journalism: Explore the beginner’s guide to podcasting, and mobile journalism or sharpen your investigative skills on environmental journalism by toggling with tools that show forest fires, land reclamation, illegal fishing or receding shorelines. Pick up simple ways to safeguard your device and accounts, protecting yourself as a journalist. Upload and collaborate on Pinpoint for reporting projects with large volumes of documents, audio files - enabling seamless editorial teamwork.


To start, our webinars on the topic of Data journalism and visualization will commence on 1st March, 2021. Registrations are now open – we invite newsrooms to sign up here.


For more information on other courses and training material, newsrooms are also welcome to visit g.co/newstraining , or email here to submit a request for training in English. For accessing verification workshops in 10 languages across India, newsrooms can reach out here.


The importance of quality journalism can never be overstated -- especially in these times of healing and recovery for people as well as businesses – where readers continue to depend on the vital role that newsrooms across the country play in delivering authoritative, timely, and trusted news.


Posted by Irene Jay Liu, News Lab Lead, APAC

The Indian journalists fighting fake news

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Indian journalist Bharat Nayak knows misinformation can have dangerous consequences. He’s witnessed it too often in his home state of Jharkhand, India. 


According to Bharat, “Indian society has been gravely affected by ‘fake news’, which has  contributed to a rise in hatred and violence, and horrific incidences of lynching.” Concern about misinformation was especially pronounced around last year’s Indian general election—where more than 600 million people voted in the biggest democratic exercise in history.  


The spread of misinformation is something the Google News Initiative (GNI) India Training Network—a group of 240 senior Indian reporters and journalism educators—has been working to counteract, in their newsrooms and beyond. 


In partnership with DataLeads and Internews, the Network has provided in-depth verification training for more than 15,000 journalists and students from more than 875 news organizations, in 10 Indian languages. Using a “train-the-trainer” approach, it’s also helped support nearly all of the fact-checking initiatives launched by  Indian media over the past year. 


But Network trainers wanted to do more than train their fellow journalists - they wanted to spread the message to their communities. Bharat traveled home to Jharkhand and held workshops, not only with fellow journalists, but with community groups and students—like those in the photo above.


Today, to build on the network’s progress since 2018, we’re announcing a $1 million Google.org grant that will help Internews launch a new initiative promoting news literacy among the Indian public. The funding support is part of Google.org’s broader, $10 million commitment to media literacy, in collaboration with the Google News Initiative.  


How will it work? First, Internews will select a team of 250 journalists, fact checkers, academics and NGO workers, who will be trained on a curriculum developed by global and Indian experts, adapted to local needs and available in seven Indian languages. The local leaders will then roll out the training to new internet users in non-metro cities in India, enabling them to better navigate the internet and assess the information they find.  


“To make journalism effective again, more than the improvements in media, what is needed is media literacy,” Bharat said. “I want to make the citizens aware of how to consume media, see news and how they can play an active role in changing things for the better.”


Starting today, Internews is putting the call out for journalists, educators, community workers and others to join the new program. We have no doubt there’ll be a strong response to the new program—and we look forward to continuing to support citizens and journalists like Bharat in the fight against misinformation in India. 


Posted by Irene Jay Liu, Google News Lab Lead, APAC and Aimee Moon, News Partnerships Manager, APAC

Announcing the GNI Newsroom Leadership Program with Columbia Journalism School

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https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/J8jWI8iVremDEGx8R4pKAnO4vsyEXUZ9vQawv_Mvi1HjFZCXXGQqmpxyZt6ralgSQ8JjQlHebsJp4qvWcE8Q82mJJ5MZ4QYS90p54pk16Dj8War5XboROv2p9YQWIy2A2kscdSRE Tim Katz Irene Jay Liu, News Lab Lead APAC
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/J8jWI8iVremDEGx8R4pKAnO4vsyEXUZ9vQawv_Mvi1HjFZCXXGQqmpxyZt6ralgSQ8JjQlHebsJp4qvWcE8Q82mJJ5MZ4QYS90p54pk16Dj8War5XboROv2p9YQWIy2A2kscdSRE Tim Katz Irene Jay Liu, News Lab Lead APAC




As part of our efforts to support the news industry, the Google News Initiative is funding a newsroom leadership program at Columbia Journalism School for journalists in Asia Pacific




Not so long ago, journalists had the luxury of focusing on filling the next day’s paper, radio segment or television broadcast, without needing to think about business models, subscriptions, publishing tools and technology. Today’s newsroom leaders need to understand the business of news in order to be stewards of great journalism. Everyone must also think like a publisher.
To help journalists in the Asia Pacific better manage the transition to the digital age, the Google News Initiative has teamed up with the Columbia School of Journalism to offer a curated program to meet their needs.


The program, which includes four weeks of onsite courses at Columbia University in New York City and Google offices in Silicon Valley and Asia, is for mid-career journalists who have the potential to take on larger roles and run their organizations. Each Fellow will also work on a specific project during the year that is relevant to their newsroom within the main fellowship topics: technology, monetization, and data.


Ten fellows from the Asia-Pacific region will learn how to lead through change in this fast-moving environment and identify opportunities for entrepreneurship within their newsrooms. The program will emphasize:
  • How news companies operate as businesses, and how technology has revolutionized what it means to be a publisher.
  • Ways to evaluate the costs and benefits of introducing technology-driven changes into  newsroom workflows, and how to ensure managers and direct reports support new ways of working.
  • The use of data to create compelling content that will resonate with audiences
  • How to facilitate design-thinking in newsrooms using Google's design sprint methodology, which is used to solve problems and develop products


The deadline to apply is June 26, 2019, but journalists are encouraged to submit applications early, as they are considered on a rolling basis. The Google News Initiative is partnering with news industry and journalist organizations around the Asia-Pacific region to shortlist applicants, including the Walkley Foundation, J-Forum, Journalists Association of Korea, Aliansi Jurnalis Independen, and Splice. Shortlisted applicants are interviewed by the Google News Initiative, and a Columbia University faculty member will select the Fellows from among those who meet all the criteria and are presented by GNI and its vetting partner institutions.   


For more information about the program, curriculum and application instructions, visit the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism website. Submit your application here.

Posted by Irene Jay Liu,  News Lab Lead, APAC

Calling all Data Journalists!

Data journalists from all over the world have until midnight BST tomorrow (10 April) to submit their work to the Data Journalism Awards: the largest international competition recognising excellence in the field. The competition is organised by the Global Editors Network: a cross-platform community of editors-in-chief and media innovators committed to high-quality journalism.

Supported by Google and Knight Foundation, the Data Journalism Awards are a fantastic opportunity for media innovators to showcase their work, and the prizes are worth €1,500 each. Previous winners include The New York Times, La Nacion, Kiln and Detective.io, as well as individuals such as Chad Skelton:

The #DJA2015 awards will recognise the best work in 10 categories:
  • Data visualisation of the year
  • Investigation of the year
  • News data app of the year
  • Data journalism website of the year
  • Best individual portfolio
  • Best use of data in a breaking news story
  • Open data award
  • Best entry from a small newsroom
  • General excellence (jurors’ choice and public choice).

It’s easy to enter on the GEN Community website, where can explore last year’s winners and short-listed projects, as well as this year’s entrants

The winners will be announced during a gala dinner at the Global Editors Network Summit in Barcelona on June 18. Good luck!

Posted by Simon Rogers, Data Editor, News Lab at Google and Director of the Data Journalism Awards

TechRaking London: muckrakers tackle climate change

A free and robust press is a fundamental pillar of an open and democratic society. Ever since the earliest newspapers, journalists have worked hard to give the public the information they need to bring about better communities. In today’s world, new technologies offer new opportunities for great journalism focused on the public good.

In that spirit, the News Lab at Google is teaming up with The Center for Investigative Reporting in 2015 for a series of events that will connect journalists, technologists and designers and develop transformative solutions to some of the challenges faced by communities around the world.

The name of the series is TechRaking - a modern twist on an early twentieth century term for investigative journalism, “muckraking” - and our first event will be in London on March 25th.

Each TechRaking event will focus on a specific design challenge. The focus of TechRaking London will be climate change. Participants will be asked to design a product or service that engages audiences and inspires them to tackle climate change, while also revealing the scale of the issue in new and insightful ways. Additional TechRaking events, on other themes, will follow in Berlin and Paris, as well as in the US and Canada.

The best ideas from TechRaking, as judged by an independent panel, will come to life as services, products and practices in journalism, thanks to our partnership with TWG, who will be providing design and development time to turn top ideas into working prototypes. We hope these collaborations will result in new public tools to help us all ensure journalism, through technology, ensures access to critical information for everyone.

Posted by Ryan Bruno, Manager, News Lab

News Impact Summit on tour in Europe

From the carved stone tablet to today’s touchscreen devices, the ways in which people consume journalism have evolved as technology has advanced. So too have the ways in which journalists practice their craft - a mobile device can be used to conduct interviews, record video, write and file copy. There are myriad exciting ways for reporters to get the story, and enrich it for readers with deep research and interactive tools.

To further empower journalists and grow their digital skills, the News Lab at Google has partnered with the non-profit European Journalism Centre (EJC) to produce a series of eight News Impact Summits across Europe in 2015. The daylong events are free and will feature local practitioners, debates, insights into how stories are produced and hands-on workshops to train on a variety of tools and techniques. Our hope is to equip journalists with new digital skills and to inspire by featuring excellence in journalism from within the community.

The first summit is on February 24 in Brussels and features speakers from the worlds of media and technology including Datawrapper, L’Echo, De Tijd, International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), JournalismFund.eu, Euractiv, the Dutch-Flemish Association for Investigative Journalism (VVOJ), Storycode, the Association of European Journalists, The Financial Times, the PressClub Brussels-Europe and Gruppo L’Espresso.

The Brussels event will have a decidedly EU flavor but others will be centered around the host country. Future summits include March 31 in Hamburg and April 28 in Paris with additional ones to follow in Madrid, London, Amsterdam, Warsaw and Prague.

To register for any of the events, and for program details, please visit newsimpact.io.

Our mission at the News Lab at Google is to collaborate with journalists, entrepreneurs and publishers everywhere through product partnerships, digital tools training, and other initiatives that support the industry as a whole. We’re thrilled to work with the EJC, which fosters both quality journalism and a free press, to help create this opportunity.

Posted by Daniel Sieberg, Head of Media Outreach, the News Lab at Google

Challenging journalism’s status quo

The countdown has begun. The Global Editors Network has announced its shortlist of 75 finalists for the Data Journalism Awards, supported by Google and the Knight Foundation. Winners will be named at GEN’s upcoming summit in Barcelona on June 12.

The young field of data journalism--analyzing large datasets to unearth news stories and information--is growing tremendously. The 2014 Data Journalism Awards received a record 520 submissions, 200 more than last year. A total of 65 countries were represented. While some newsrooms around have installed dedicated specialists to focus on reporting based on data, Mirko Lorenz, Director of the 2014 Data Journalism Awards, said solo journalists accounted for the vast majority of submissions. “Journalists are taking it on themselves to use data for projects, for experimentation,” Lorenz said.

GEN champions journalistic innovation, demonstrating how the online world offers great opportunities for the future of journalism. Its summit this year in Barcelona is entitled “Mobile. Video. Data. Challenge the Status Quo.” Sessions and keynotes will revolve around the idea that these three things must be top-of-mind in the modern newsroom. Speakers range from the Guardian’s lead digital strategist Wolfgang Blau to Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersch.

This is GEN’s fourth annual summit - take a look below at highlights from last year’s event in Paris.



This year’s summit promises to be three days of hard work and learning - and also a treat. One of the featured speakers will be Ferran Adria, the famed Catalan chef and founder of the restaurant El Bulli. See you in Barcelona.

Posted by Peter Barron, Director, Communications, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Launching a MOOC for data journalism

Mass open online education courses - MOOCS - are transforming education. We’re working with the European Journalism Centre to bring journalism education online, offering a free web data journalism course ‘Doing Journalism with Data: First Steps, Skills and Tools.’

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More than 14,000 participants have signed up. The course will officially start on May 19, 2014. It is part of the European Journalism Centre’s Data Driven Journalism initiative, which aims to enable more journalists, editors, news developers and designers to make better use of data and incorporate it further into their work. Started in 2010, the initiative provides resources for journalists through DataDrivenJournalism.net, the School of Data Journalism, and the Data Journalism Handbook.

Participants in the new online course will learn the essential concepts and skills to work effectively with data and produce compelling stories under tight deadlines. The line-up of instructors and advisors hails from journalism schools and media outlets around the world. Listen to them introduce themselves below - and enroll in the course.

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Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy Manager

Awarding innovative work in data journalism

For the past two years, we have supported the Global Editors Network(GEN) Data Journalism Awards. The third edition is now open to submissions on the GEN website until April 4. Work may be submitted for any media platform, but must be published or broadcast between April 10, 2013 and April 4, 2014. A total of eight prizes, worth a total of EUR16,000, will be awarded.



As journalism makes the exciting, if sometimes difficult, transition from off to online, technology is opening up new avenues for journalism. The emerging field of data journalism analyses numerical data and databases to make inferences and discoveries which enable journalists to produce news in ways that were difficult or impossible before the invention of the Internet and powerful data-processing. Bertrand Pecquerie, the GEN CEO, believes the use of data will, in particular, revolutionize investigative reporting.

Entries will be judged by an all-star jury of journalists, including Wolfgang Blau of The Guardian, Simon Rogers of Twitter, and Giannina Segnini from La Nación. Paul Steiger, the former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal and founder of the Pulitzer Prize-winning ProPublica, will serve as president.

Winning teams will be invited to present their work at the Global Editors Network Summit in Barcelona on June 12, 2014. Steiger and Jaume Giro, CEO of the bank la Caixa, will preside at the ceremony, which will be held at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona.

Posted by Simon Morrison, Public Policy manager, London