TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Bojan Blazhevski
The aim of this training was to increase the knowledge of young journalists and students of journalism in data journalism and visualization. This program gave young people the necessary skills to drive high-quality reporting using data, introduce them to low-cost or open-source digital tools to assist them in their work, and link them to like-minded peers for exchange of shared problems and potential solutions. Established in 2004, the Metamorphosis Foundation works on strengthening the awareness and capacity of citizens and civil society. The Foundation aims to become a leading national and regional advocate in supporting and enabling citizen engagement and government accountability, with a particular emphasis on the use of information technology and knowledge-sharing.
This training was held in English and was attended by 14 young people, primarily students and journalists from all over North Macedonia. The training itself was conducted by Derek Willis, lecturer at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland (USA), Goran Rizaov, Head of the Program “Media for Democracy” at the Metamorphosis Foundation (North Macedonia) and Bojan Blazhevski, Editor-in-Chief of Meta News Agency (North Macedonia).
In three days, a series of lectures were held, and the participants also did practical exercises. The topics covered were: What is data and what types of data there are, how to find the data, what are the most used online sources of datasets in North Macedonia, and how to glean the data from tables and how to perform their analysis.
The participants were divided into four teams, tasked with preparing a visualization from the selected data on a specific topic and presenting the results.
The young people in the three-day training received knowledge about data journalism and visualization and received certificates for the acquired skills, issued by the International Center For Journalists and the Metamorphosis Foundation. The training was successful, because all groups prepared visualized on selected data and presented their results in front of the trainers.
List of publications for this training: https://meta.mk/en/young-people-in-a-three-day-workshop-learned-about-data-visualization-gallery/
As a journalist with experience in Data Journalism, I gave a lecture on this training about the sources for collecting data in North Macedonia and EU. Moreover, I worked together with the groups in data collection, analysis and visualization during the three-day training course. Through the training, I demonstrated my expertise as a journalist in data journalism. Furthermore, I transfer my knowledge in the field of non-formal learning and worked with other two trainers on producing the training materials.