University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU Hanoi

https://ussh.vnu.edu.vn

"Data journalism" course commenced

On November 21st, 2018, the Vietnam Program for Internet & Society (VPIS) (USSH) collaborated with Google, PR Newswire, UNESCO Vietnam and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage to launch the "Data journalism" training course. The course was aimed at journalists working as managers at press and media agencies in Vietnam.

Data journalism is a new trend in disseminating information of Vietnamese and international press agencies. Data can be used to provide more detailed information about what is going on and the impact of information on society. By informing the public about the current developments, data can be used by journalists to analyze information to help them understand important news events and see long-term propensities. Investments in data journalism are considered long-term and strategically necessary for press agencies.

Prof. Dr Pham Quang Minh and Mr. Michael Croft - Head of UNESCO Hanoi Office, and Mrs. Anastasia Valeeva - Data journalism specialist and lecturer at  American University of Central Asia, Mr. Bui Hong Minh - Director for Foreign Affairs and Communications, Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage

The age of digital and social media allows everyone to get information more easility, but information coming from different sources can also cause fake or inaccurate news. Thus, journalists are met with new challenges in making sure their information is factual and accurate. The model 5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how) is no longer enough in this current digital era. Given the pressure posed by changing communication methods, reporters are supposed to not only reuse new sources but also check their validity, therefore the abilities to "dig into" information, find relevant data and especially "get on well with statistics" are crucial for professional journalism.

The course gathers lecturers specializing in journalism, communication and media management.

With this course, learners will discover the "added values" of data to journalism and understand how to construct data-based news and stories. They will learn how to produce articles based on factual statistics and typical studies. The course will visualize statistics to help journalists transform data into stories and news.

The course will also provide advanced information about Google's search engines and data filtering for professional journalism. Supportive tools include records, search techniques, statistical graphics, Google Maps and Earth, and Google Trends. Journalists will be equipped with knowledge of Google News Labs, a project aimed at helping journalists adapt to the digital era.

About the lecturers:

  • Anastasia Valeeva - Data journalism specialist and lecturer at American University of Central Asia, Researcher at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University: Anastasia is an open data researcher and co-founder of School of Data Kyrgyzstan. She studies the use of open data in investigative data journalism at the above Institute. She taught data journalism at Data Bootcamps in Montenegro and Germany, UN Data Journalism Summer Institutes in Kyrgyzstan and Albania, Higher School of Economics, Russia and currently teaches data journalism at American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan. At the School of Data Kyrgyzstan, she develops skills for reading and writing data and the active formation of a community of data practitioners.

  • Chris Brummitt – Google's Asia-Pacific Communication Manager, former Reporter of AP and Bloomberg: Chris graduated from University of London, was an Associated Press reporter and editor from 2008 and 2015, during which he made news and reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the death of Osama Bin Laden, the political crises and terrorism in Southeast Asia. Next, he worked for Bloomberg (2015-2016) and made reporters about Southeast Asian economies and markets. He took the position of Asia-Pacific Communication Manager in 2016 before going to Google instruct and direct the communications in Asia-Pacific.

Author: Thanh Ha

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