Google is organising a workshop for journalists and journalism students to train them the nuances of covering polls ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The entire journalism fraternity, including the freelancers and those who indulge in reporting, is invited to register for the training sessions that will be held across the country in different cities. The training will be offered by the Google News Initiative starting February 26. The last session will be held on April 6.
Google News Initiative has partnered DataLeads and Internews to offer the training that will include online verification and fact-checking of the news, data visualisation for elections, coverage on YouTube, and online safety. The programme will be available to over 1,000 journalists in India in English, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati, and Malayalam. The sessions will be held in the following cities along with the dates:
Agartala, Tripura | Sat, Mar 16 | English
Ahmedabad, Gujarat | Sat, Mar 9 | Gujarati/English (bilingual)
Aizawl, Mizoram | Sat, Mar 9 | English
Bengaluru, Karnataka | Fri, Mar 8 | English/Kannada (bilingual)
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh | Sun, Mar 17 | Hindi/ English (bilingual)
Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Sat, Mar 9 | Odia/English (bilingual)
Chandigarh, Punjab/Haryana | Sat, Mar 9 | English
Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Mon, Mar 11 | Tamil/English (bilingual)
Dehradun, Uttarakhand | Sat, Mar 30 | English
Delhi NCR, Delhi | Tue, Feb 26 | English track + Hindi track
Gangtok, Sikkim | Sat, Mar 2 | English
Guwahati, Assam | Sat, Mar 9 | English
Hyderabad, Telangana/Andhra Pradesh | Wed, Mar 13 | Telugu/ English (bilingual)
Imphal, Manipur | Sat, Mar 23 | English
Indore, Madhya Pradesh | Sat, Mar 16 | English
Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh | Sat, Apr 6 | English
Jaipur, Rajasthan | Fri, Mar 15 | Hindi
Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir | Sat, Mar 9 | English
Kochi, Kerala | Sat, Mar 2 | English/Malayalam (bilingual)
Kohima, Nagaland | Sat, Mar 2 | English
Kolkata, West Bengal | Wed, Mar 6 | English/Bangla (bilingual)
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh | Mon, Mar 4 | Hindi
Mumbai, Maharashtra | Fri, Mar 15 | English/Marathi (bilingual)
Panaji, Goa | Sat, Mar 23 | English
Patna, Bihar | Fri, Mar 1 | Hindi
Pune, Maharashtra | Sat, Mar 16 | English/Marathi (bilingual)
Raipur, Chhattisgarh | Sat, Mar 16 | Hindi
Ranchi, Jharkhand | Tue, Mar 12 | Hindi
Shillong, Meghalaya | Sat, Mar 16 | English
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh | Sat, Mar 23 | English/Telugu (bilingual)
The interested journalists can enrol themselves by visiting the website on a first come first serve basis. Google says the programme is also open to journalism students who will also need to register themselves first.
“The Google News Initiative is proud to be supporting journalists in India as they prepare to cover the upcoming elections. Our partners DataLeads and Internews will offer training on online verification and fact-checking and other courses, in 30 cities in 10 languages. Since 2016, Google has trained more than 13,000 journalists in India, across 200+ newsrooms and in 40 cities,” said Irene Jay Liu, Google News Lab Lead of Asia-Pacific.
