In June this year, Google launched an aggressive project to
connect journalists with its software tools, data, training and other resources
to boost reporting.
The new Google News Lab site brings
together under one umbrella some of the tech giant’s previous initiatives and
existing tools, including Fusion Tables, Maps, Google Earth, Trends, Google
Consumer Surveys and polling data. The site also offers 35 short, self-guided
tutorials to teach reporters how to use its vast resources.
On Dec. 10, OPC Governor Daniel Sieberg, who serves as the
company’s global head of media outreach, outlined the News Lab’s offerings and
talked about the many collaborations connected to the project. The event took
place at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in New York.
Sieberg said News Lab is meant to be a portal to help foster
innovation and navigate fast changes in the journalism industry.
“I think it’s extremely important that we come in in this very
collaborative fashion and say ‘what is it that we can do?’” he told attendees.
With a core team of about 12 people, News Lab has worked with
newsrooms around the world to help journalists to make better use of Google
products.
Sieberg said that to date, the group
has conducted trainings for 23,000 journalists around the world, and the team
has set an ambitious goal of training a total of 100,000 journalists by the end
of 2016.
News Lab has forged partnerships with a
broad range of news and tech and journalism groups, including Poynter, the
Society of Professional Journalists, Hacks/Hackers, Matter, the Center for
Investigative Reporting and the European Journalism Center.
Sieberg gave several examples of ways
journalists can use Google applications, such as tracking Google’s searches to
follow trends and public interest in real time, or using reverse-image lookup
to verify image details. News Lab has worked with Matter, First Draft News and
Bellingcat, which all focus on verifying content from eyewitnesses and citizen
journalists.
News Lab is also exploring possibilities of
new technologies like virtual reality cameras and Accelerate Mobile Pages for
making news content more mobile-friendly.
“Data journalism is no longer just some lowly
person sitting off in a corner trying to plot things on a map,” he said.
“Journalists are expected to understand the value of data and how to present
it. It will be interesting to see how that trend continues in 2016.”