IDP, Press Club organise workshop on ‘Using Open Data’
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Ramesh Kumar on Saturday highlighted the importance of media in presenting the true picture before society. He said that the media should be a mirror of truth and avoid “sensationalism”.
Terming media as an influencer in creating public opinion, he stressed that the fourth estate has greater responsibility to spread awareness and educate people about various welfare schemes.
He said that freedom of media is generally accepted as a cornerstone of modern democratic society, but the media also must play its role with responsibility and accountability.
Addressing the concluding session of the one-day workshop organized by India Data Portal (IDP), from the Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP) at the Indian School of Business (ISB) in collaboration with the Jammu Press Club, Jammu, the Divisional Commissioner said that media persons should properly utilize data in disseminating authentic information.
The Divisional Commissioner appreciated the Jammu Press Club for organizing such an informative workshop which is beneficial for media persons of Jammu. He also appreciated IDP for organizing such event in Jammu.
The topic of the one-day workshop is ‘Using Open Data & Visualisations For Creating And Presenting News Stories”.
Over 150 journalists from all media platforms attended the workshop.
Inaugurating the workshop eminent columnist and former HoD of the Department of the Political Science University of Jammu, Prof Rekha Chowdhary emphasized the need of utilizing data in the present era of journalism.
“In the present scenario when social media has become an important means of sharing and disseminating information it is essential to properly utilize and analyze information”, she said.
The workshop focussed on using data in journalism, and how to present data through attractive visualizations using www.indiadataportal.com. The session covered familiarisation with the IDP, which hosts a wide range of processed and documented datasets from Central and state public agencies and government departments. It also covered high-frequency indicators launched during COVID19 to track the health of the Indian economy under the IndiaPulse@ISB initiative.
The IDP is an initiative to enhance transparency in governance, and citizens’ right to access and use public data related to significant aspects of policymaking.
The use of IDP helps journalists, researchers, public policy makers, and academicians to access, interact with, and visualize data related to Union Budget, Elections, agriculture, financial inclusion, and rural development, in six Indian languages – Hindi, Bengali, English, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu.
Delivering the introductory remarks, Deepti Soni, Senior Consultant, India Data Portal, ISB said, “Data-driven news can provide a different angle to a storyline, add new dimensions to journalism and enhance the credibility of the news and India Data Portal not only provides data but suitable visualizations as well which can make it more attractive for the readers and at the same time it can be helpful in significantly reducing chances of misinformation and fake news.”
Veteran journalist Arun Joshi, in his address, hoped that today’s workshop will help journalists of Jammu to properly utilize data in their stories. He said that it was an informative event that would be proved beneficial for budding journalists.
President of Press Club of Jammu Sanjeev Pargal welcomed all guests and the team of the IDP.
He expressed his gratitude to IDP for organizing such an informative event in the Press Club of Jammu.
