Bi taught the fundamentals of how to scrape data from government and other websites to download into Google Sheets, a spreadsheet program that enables users to create charts and graphs for publication in print products and online.
Photo by Scott Brinton/PCLI
Roughly 25 journalists attended the two-hour session.
The Google News Initiative is a partnership between the tech giant and the Society of Professional Journalists to train editors, reporters and news managers across the country in the cutting-edge digital tools that they need now and will need in the future.
Google News Initiative training programs are provided free of charge in newsrooms and at seminars and conferences around the country through a grant by Google.
“This was the second time that Frank provided a training at the Herald, and he has done such an amazing job each time,” said Scott Brinton, PCLI’s president and executive editor of Herald Community Newspapers. “His trainings are fast-paced and full of useful information that will help lead us into the future.”
Among the tools that are available through the News Initiative are:
• Google Alerts
• Google Surveys
• Google Earth Pro
• Google Maps
• Google Permissions
• Google Public Data Explorer
• Google Advanced Search
• Google Translate
• Google Sheets
• YouTube
For more on this program or how to request a training session, click Google’s information page here
and SPJ’s page here.
The Google News Initiative blog can be found here.