Foundation Identifies Data As Key To Journalism Practice In Nigeria

The Founder/CEO, Dataphyte Foundation, Joshua Olufemi has identified data journalism as one of the solutions to myriad of challenges facing journalism practice in Nigeria.

Olufemi while speaking in Abuja on Wednesday at the Launch of Dataphyte hub and Unveiling of Dapo Olorunyomi Theatre stated that Data is what will transform even one of the greatest challenges that journalism is faced with such as sustainability or revenue sustainability.

Olufemi explained that data is going to lead journalism practice and enhance its transformation in ways that we can’t even imagine today which will be laid on technology which becomes the mediator that accelerates the level of things we do.

“So if you’re able to use a good data, climate change data, business data, any data that you have just creates like a genre or a different dimension of journalism.

“With AI coming into that, we are able to put any raw data, budget data, aggregate data,

any point of data into that and the data journalist already has the first draft that you can now put your human angle and every other primary source to dimension it. So that’s what we can do just with layering AI on top of data to drive journalism.

“For us at Dataphyte, it’s always finding the data to better interpret or understand all

the challenges, gaps, and able to speak about the good things that we see around us as a society.”

Olufemi added that data Journalism is imperative to keep journalism practice alive for the generation yet unborn.

“We need to begin to gather the grains that we would need to power journalism, to

make people see journalism as one of the oldest profession that we have. 150 years of journalism in Nigeria can’t just be a story, can’t just be an institution that people see as an afterthought.

“And how do we take that 150 years of data of storytelling, history,  politics, and business that we’ve been able to do and relay to the next generation, or even use it to

better incite ourself or think about intelligence?

“If we’re able to pull all of us together and allow technology and allow analysts or

researchers to help us find meaning in it  from just telling people what is to helping them connect the past to the future that they are hoping for.”

Dapo Olorunyomi, Honoree and Founder of Premium Times and Centre  for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), noted that there is need to reinvent the wheel of innovation to boost finance journalism which is currently a challenge to journalism practice today.

“What needs to be done, and that’s a big challenge for all of us, is to have to think the

next phase in innovation is how do you finance journalism? Because the current business models for doing journalism has become atrophy. It’s come to a bust. It can grow again.

“So we need to reinvent that. That’s the biggest challenge for innovation now. And I

believe that, you know, Dataphyte is creating the platform for that kind of thinking.”

Meanwhile, Olorunyomi emphasized that data is central to the project of journalism today adding that the whole purpose of writing, reporting, and covering is all about data hence should be embraced by all upcoming journalists.

“So I think I would say that they understand first and foremost that everything, countable and even abstracted, is all data.

“And to the extent that we want to do journalism, we want to develop stories around which we explain, provide insights about our community, requires us to be first and foremost be data literate.

“All the words that we use, all the sounds that we use, all the graphics that we use, that’s data, but that’s really data in

an organic sense.” He added.