On May 18-20, “Journalists For the Future” NGO, jointly with the Ampop Media Initiative, held a workshop on data journalism attended mainly by representatives of the regional media outlets.
The 3-day workshop has been made possible in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Armenia (FES) within the framework of the “Raising Awareness on Socio-Economic Issues in the Regions of Armenia” project.
Journalists, participating in the workshop, explored the role of journalism in the digital age, were introduced to the local databases revealing skills on how to productively use them as well as did practical assignments to refine, process and analyze the data.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:333:]]Due to discussions held within the framework of the workshop, participants identified the key socio-economic issues existing in the regions of Armenia. The identified issues involve mainly the fields of health, education, employment, tourism and local self-governance.
On May 18-20, “Journalists For the Future” NGO, jointly with the Ampop Media Initiative, held a workshop on data journalism attended mainly by representatives of the regional media outlets.
The 3-day workshop has been made possible in cooperation with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Armenia (FES) within the framework of the “Raising Awareness on Socio-Economic Issues in the Regions of Armenia” project.
Journalists, participating in the workshop, explored the role of journalism in the digital age, were introduced to the local databases revealing skills on how to productively use them as well as did practical assignments to refine, process and analyze the data.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:333:]]Due to discussions held within the framework of the workshop, participants identified the key socio-economic issues existing in the regions of Armenia. The identified issues involve mainly the fields of health, education, employment, tourism and local self-governance.
Liana Badalyan, representative of the partner Friedrich Ebert Foundation, expressed hope that the research stuff on regional issues, being prepared by the participant-journalists after the workshop, will appear in the spotlight of the newly formed Government and stakeholders of Armenia.
Vahagn Dabaghyan from the “Kyavar TV” Company mentioned that he was interested in working with data processing, since it facilitates journalist’s work on data refining, filtering and identifying the issues. “By the way, I have a story published on Ampop.am which was prepared with the support of experts from Ampop Media Initiative. After this workshop, I think it will be easier to work on my topic as I already know what is the required format for Ampop.am and what are the necessary sources and databases to use,” says Dabaghyan.
He also highlighted the activities of Ampop and stated that the platform audience are people digging and seeking for deeper issues. The staff of Ampop is quite specialized in their job, and I am very glad that there is a news platform like Ampop.am in the Armenian media field with such a profound and responsible approach.
“The media field in Armenia is more focused on stories covering daily events, whereas analytical stuff is a rarely encountered phenomenon. In this regard, Ampop is distinguished since it can cover not only daily events but also involve an analysis that makes the story more interesting.”
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:334:]]Another participant from Armavir Civic Youth Center Susanna Matinyan says, “I have always admired the overall media activity and work of Ampop Media. Due to the stories on Ampop.am, one can immediately understand what has happened. Topics on Ampop are provided briefly, but visually and comprehensively. When using other media platforms one should read and identify the most significant and necessary. In case of Ampop this is done instead of the reader.
Susanna says she has mostly worked with diagrams in work, but she has always been eager to learn and master the tools used by Ampop.
“Thanks for the workshop and the project. I could gain extensive information that I will use in my future career. Our Center frequently conducts monitoring and research activities in different areas, so to present the research results through infographics is the best solution. The skills obtained due to this workshop will be useful in any kind of job,” says Susanna.
Lilit Muradyan, representative of “TSAYG” TV, noted that she was greatly interested in participating in this workshop since it had a regional engagement. “There are workshops that are interesting in their content but not applicable. This workshop was different from others since theoretical knowledge was accompanied by practical skills, which will be useful in my job in the future. The workshop enabled the development of more interesting ideas on how to provide news in a more accessible and visual manner,” says Muradyan.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:335:]]Emma Petrosyan from “Ankyun + 3” TV Company says for the first time she has revealed Ampop.am through one of the links on Facebook. “I immedietly got interested in Ampop, since it experiences a new approach: less text, more numbers, and graphics that are too evocative and help the reader to more easily get the topic. I learned about the workshop from Suren Deheryan, the chief editor of Ampop.am, and decided to attend the workshop since I got interested in all its aspects. My expectations from the workshop are justified. I was able to obtain skills and study nuances in working with infographics. They will be very useful also in TV journalism, where I am going to use them,” says Emma.
The workshop will be followed by implementation of analyses and preparation of research pieces on the topics and issues identified during the workshop. To highlight the issues in each region, a detailed study of statistical data using national and regional statistics, surveys and other important facts will be implemented to attract the attention of the public, civil society and state bodies to socio-economic issues characteristic to each region.
Source: JFF