The Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA) in partnership with IDRC in Eastern and Southern Africa has trained journalists on the use of infographics and visualization for better presentation of health and environment stories.
Training on data visualization in journalism aims to equip journalists with the skills to integrate visual elements into their stories, enabling them to convey information in an exciting manner, engage audiences, through impactful infographics including graphs, charts, dashboards, and maps.
Jackson Okata, a Nairobi based health and science journalist is always on the lookout for ways to elevate his story telling and make complex information more accessible to his audience.
He had an opportunity to participate in a training on data journalism organized by MESHA that brought together health and science journalists from different parts of the country to sharpen their skills in data driven storytelling.
While speaking during the training in a Nairobi hotel. Okata said that journalists armed with data visualization skills can craft richer narratives of their stories, gain audience trust, and drive social impacts.
He said that for journalists’ eager to sharpen their skills for impact, attending training and mastering the art of incorporating data visualization in storytelling is an added advantage as data, facts and evidence are a core part of a story.
Okata said during the training sessions he worked with real data sets to create interactive visualizations using AI tool kits and apps like Tabula, Data wrapper, Canva and Flourish to come up with infographics like graphs, charts, maps and tables among other graphic displays.
“I was amazed at how easily I could transform raw data into engaging stories that revealed trends, patterns and insights that would have been difficult to convey through text alone” he said, adding that interactive visualizations can enhance reader engagement.
He said that he is confident that data visualization will become an essential tool in his toolkit, enabling him to tell more engaging, informative and impactful stories that resonate with his audience.
“I could see the potential for data visualization to enhance my reporting “he said, adding that the training was a valuable investment in my skills as a journalist, and he is excited to apply what he has learnt to future projects.
Data Journalist Trainer, Eunice Magwambo, said that data journalism is a type of reporting that interprets data and uses that information as a critical source of a story. Data, facts, evidence are a core part of the news story.
She said that the structure of any story that involves data can be achieved by following the data pipeline that entails the following steps. Defining, Find, Get, Verify, Clean, Analyse then lastly Present.
She said that the way of telling stories with data is also richer because your article does not just have words, it also has figures and infographics visualization.
“Data journalism is the future in bridging the gap of telling for example technical climate change stories “she said, urging journalists to use tool kits, data research and data apps to enhance their storytelling prowess.
Malemba Mkongo a data journalist and Trainer said that as journalists, data journalism is important because we are able to check the data, to check the numbers, which not so many people understand, and simplify them in a way that people who are being affected can understand.
Training other journalists on how to use and visualize their data and make infographics so that our audiences can interact with their stories well is imperative.
Mkongo observed that not so many people want to dig so deep into numbers, but when we simplify numbers, it makes it easy for anyone to understand, and it’s easy for them, for our audiences to also relate to whatever has been put out there”
She said that it is very important for journalists to be trained on issues, not only data, but anything that is coming up now for example issues related to climate change
“Climate change is a complex issue. Not so many people understand it and its impact, and the causes, but when there’s data on all these impacts and everything around climate change, it helps audiences understand its impacts” she said
She said that it is very critical for us as journalists to be keen on data, because if we are not keen in interpreting our data, it means our audiences or our communities won’t know more about climate change, yet it’s affecting them.
“We need to do research, to dig deep on data, to simplify it, and also humanize them, to make sure that our communities can relate to these numbers” she said.
MESHA Secretary Aghan Daniel said that training in new media technologies, data analysis, and digital tools can help journalists adapt to the evolving media landscape and improve their reporting efficiency.
He said that journalists were taken through visualization and infographics learning about different forms of infographics and breaking down complex data into consumable information
“Data journalism is a type of reporting that interprets data and uses that information as a critical source for a story. Data visualization is a powerful tool for story telling in journalism” he said, adding that journalists need to uphold ethics in their reporting.
He said MESHA usually conducts media cafés and training to continually sharpen the skills of our members by exploring new tools and techniques to create interactive and immersive stories that have impact in the health and environment sector.
By Anita Omwenga
