Wan-Ifra complimentary training webinar on 19-20 August 2021
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.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
