An understanding of technology and code is becoming a foundational requirement in the digital age. Coding skills help journalists tell better and more engaging stories in the ever-changing world of digital journalism. With the increased usage of data, coding has become one of the essential skills for journalists in newsrooms.
Wan-Ifra, along with the Facebook Journalism Project, is conducting a webinar on ‘An introduction to product and code for journalists’ on 19-20 August 2021. The timing for the webinar will be from 1130 – 1300 hrs IST on both days.
Samarth Bansal, journalist and computer programmer, will be the trainer for the sessions. Bansal is based in India where he writes about technology, politics, and policy. His work has appeared in various publications including the Hindustan Times, Mint, HuffPost, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic.
In this training webinar, the trainer will introduce journalists to the building blocks of software and data products. The goal is to enable journalists (on the editorial side) to have more meaningful conversations with engineers (product side), help them understand the significance of technologies/terms they encounter regularly, sketch out the distinction between using tech for reporting and tech for building products, among other things.
The agenda for the webinar includes the difference between programming and computer science; the meaning of the terms backend, frontend, servers, and database; basic idea about programming languages like Python, R, Java, Javascript, HTML, and PHP and their use for journalism; use of tech in reporting: in news gathering, data analysis, open-source intelligence (applications will be linked to fundamentals.); use of tech in news products such as websites, apps, CMS, and editorial innovations; and the basic skills to look out for when hiring a developer in the newsroom.
Click here to register for the webinar
