Google expands Google News Initiative India Training Network to cover 5 new languages

Google has expanded its Google News Initiative India Training Network to cover five new Indian languages. This Google initiative helps teach journalists and newsrooms learn digital skills needed to verify and tackle misinformation online and will now be available in Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Gujarati, and Malayalam.

The Google News Initiative India Training Network was launched four years ago in partnership with DataLeads and the company said that till date it has organised more than 700 workshops and trained more than 39,000 journalists and media colleges in at least 10 languages.

Google is also going to launch a Fact-Check Academy in partnership with DataLeads which will take in 100 new trainers to “help newsrooms and journalists build capacity to tackle climate misinformation and verify misleading data and claims that include false numbers”.

The company is actively recruiting journalists, journalism professors, and fact-checkers to join the network as trainers. These trainers will get to learn verification skills and techniques from experts. The deadline to apply for this is July 30.

Selected candidates will join a three-day fully-supported residency train-the-trainer program in August and Google says that preference will be given to those from new languages and with prior data or science journalism experience.

“In the 3-day train-the-trainer boot camp, selected candidates will hone their skills in verification and training. Global verification experts and Indian fact-checkers will train them on a curriculum built in consultation with the Science Journalists Association of India, Amity University, Jagran Lakecity University and OP Jindal Global University,” Google said.

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