Data journalism set to vitalise information dissemination

MEDIA houses, civil societies and government should make use of data journalism to collect reliable information and statistics

This was said on Thursday by the Managing Director of Tanzania Data Lab (dLab) Dr. Godfrey Justo, during the conclusion of a training program on data journalism in Dar es Salaam, which involved journalists, government officials and civil society members.
He said that data analysis helps in keeping human bias away from the research conclusion with the help of proper statistical treatment and at the same time it filters when it comes to acquiring meaningful insights out of huge data set.
Dr. Justo said that as the workplace becomes more techdriven and fast-paced, data analysis and the skills gained from data analysis courses are going to play an increasingly important role in business.
“That is why we want to make sure that dLab becomes a center for collecting reliable data and at the same time offer training to more people who will apply the technique at their working places,” he said.
On her part, Ms Mahadia Tunga, the dLab Head of Training said that currently it is important to use data for decision making activities, which includes analyzing challenges like HIV prevalence and gender based violence.
She said that data analysis is an internal organizational function performed by data analysts that is more than merely presenting numbers and figures to management, saying that it requires a much more in-depth approach to recording, analyzing and dissecting data and presenting the findings in an easily-digestible format.
“With data analysis courses we offer, one will be able to provide a company with decisionmaking insight into several key areas, which includes decision making, analyze, interpret and deliver data in meaningful ways and at the same time increase business productivity,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries of the training, Ms Shinuna Saidi of Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) said that the knowledge she gained in data journalism is vital to her work, because it will help her analyze sensitive information and present it in a n easy manner. Data analysis is a process used to inspect, clean, transform and remodel data with a view to reach to a certain conclusion for a given situation.