Amman – A training course entitled “Exploring New Stories, Verifying Information and News, Visual Storytelling, and Using Google Maps in News” was organized for graduate students at Jordan Media Institute (JMI).
The three-day training, provided by Journalist and trainer Samia Ayesh, aimed to teach students advanced search options offered by Google.
The expert noted that “the use of these search skills by Arab journalists will save time and effort and lead to high quality results”.
“We have a huge youth potential, … but we need to harness new technologies for journalism,” said the digital journalism expert, who also noted that there is a lot to report on in the region.
The use of new search tools will help journalists find a different content, achieve higher visibility, verify information, and get accurate results, added Ayesh .
Lawrence Marashdeh, one of the 38 students who attended the training, said the new tools will help reduce a lot of time. Among the new things he said he learned was the use of new apps for interview transcription, which will replace the traditional time-consuming audio transcription technique. His colleague Rihan Hattar, said he greatly benefited from learning about the hashtag and Google Trends.
It is worth noting that Ayesh held several training workshops as part of Google News Initiative which, according to Google, aims “to help journalism thrive in the digital age.” A similar training was offered for Al-Mamlaka staff at JMI facilities. Ayesh, who worked as a correspondent for CNN, is also a film critic.