20 African journalists attend course in South Africa

Twenty selected journalists from five African countries will take part in a workshop on data journalism, facilitated by Vital Strategies, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO).

The workshop, known as “Effective use of data in public health journalism,” is aimed at equipping selected journalists with basic skills in data journalism to be able to report effectively in the area.

It will also enable the journalists to understand and assess the validity of various types of data including health, discover trends and patterns in those data, and communicate findings from data to their audience clearly, succinctly, and accurately.

The training is also part of Vital Strategies’ Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative it often organises for journalists from different part of the world.

Mr Louis James de Viel Castel — Chairperson of
the Board of Directors of Vital Strategies

The training programme, taking place from March 5 to 9, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, will also coincide with the 17th World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH), the first to be held in Africa.

The global conference will unite researchers, academics, NGOs, civil society organisations (CSOs), scientists, healthcare professionals and public officials working on all aspects of tobacco control from more than 100 countries.

Convened by the Advisory Board of WCTOH, the Cape Town Consortium, the Conference Secretariat, and The Union, it is expected that this year’s global conference will rally the support of leaders in the fight against tobacco and related health diseases.

Courses

A training flyer for the workshop indicate that the first three days of the programme will be used to train journalists on data journalism, after which they will be made to participate, contribute and report on the conference.

The courses for the programme include common data-related terms and concepts, primary sources of public health data, basic methods for analysing, interpreting, and visualising public health data, and effective tactics for interviewing public health experts about data-rich topics.

“The third day will be an interactive writing workshop, where participants will draft a data-driven article on any topic of their choosing,” it said.

The training will be facilitated by experts in data and statistics, and health drawn from different organisations including Vital Strategies.

Writer’s email: charles.andoh@graphic.com.gh