The Dubai Press Club (DPC), in partnership with Google News Lab, today hosted a live virtual workshop on the tools and techniques that journalists can use to visualise data to create more compelling news stories.

The interactive session titled ‘Data Journalism and Visualisation’ was conducted remotely on Google Hangouts. More than 75 journalists and media professionals based in the UAE and abroad tuned in to the session, which was led by SamyaAyish, Google News Initiative Teaching Fellow in MENA.

As digital platforms open new opportunities for journalists to present their stories, collecting relevant data has become an important part of journalists’ work. With data journalism becoming a prominent trend during the COVID-19 pandemic, the workshop aimed to introduce journalists to different data sources as well as tools they can use to illustrate their stories.

Maitha Buhumaid, Director of Dubai Press Club, said the workshop is the third in a series of virtual events organised by DPC as part of its efforts to continue supporting regional media development even in the current environment. “Media professionals are using data journalism techniques during the COVID-19 pandemic to communicate complex information clearly to their audiences,” she said.

Analysingvast amounts of data on the COVID-19 crisis and verifying news in a fast-paced news environment are two challenges that journalists face on a daily basis, she said. “Dubai Press Club was keen to organise the workshop to keep journalists abreast of the latest digital tools and train them in analysing and presenting information in simple, clear and compelling ways. Journalists learned how to create interactive dashboards, analyse large data models and scientific studies. They were also introduced to prominent sources offered by Google to obtain data, and tools such as Flourish and Data GIF Maker to visualise information,” Buhumaid added

Buhumaid thanked Google News Lab for hosting the workshop. She said DPC is keen to work with global media leaders like Google to enhance the skillsets of journalists.

Joyce Baz, Head of Communications, Google, MENA, said: “At Google, we are committed to promote knowledge transfer and help users develop a better understanding of our new technologies. Today, data journalism has become widespread across the media and added significant value to news coverage. We’re pleased to continue our collaboration with the Dubai Press Club to offer local journalists digital skills training through our Google News Lab.”

SamyaAyish, Google News Initiative Teaching Fellow in MENA said: “At Google News Lab, we are seeing data journalism growing quickly across media. Many journalists are keen to do stories featuring extensive numbers and statistics. Advancements in technologies and web-based tools have enabled journalists to present numbers and statistics in a simple and attractive way. Hosting webinars like these are critical to promote fact-based journalism especially amidst the current COVID-19 situation.”

During the workshop, trainees were introduced to different sources for data journalism and tools such as Flourish, Google Data Studio and Data GIF Maker that can support them in visualising their data. They also learned about the use of data collection applications and platforms such as Google Sheets and how to organise data.

Participants were able to learn how GIF Data Maker can be used to visualise poll results. They also explored how different templates offered by Flourish can create graphics, bar charts and animated charts.