Google says it has trained over 20,000 Indian journalists so far

Google on Wednesday published its first Google News Initiative Impact report. While announcing the report the company said that it had trained over 20,000 Indian journalists in-person or via virtual live workshops in 10 languages in India so far, touching over 1,000 news organisations and over 700 universities.

“Through the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund, we were able to provide financial support to 228 news organizations across the country, with recipients able to use the fund in whatever way would help them navigate the crisis,” Google explained in a blog post.

Google said that its work in India mainly focuses on three areas, which include elevating quality journalism, empowering sustainable business growth and empowering newsrooms through innovation.

The company said that recently it brought visual and immersive Web Stories to Discover, which helps users find some visual content from around the web. Last year, the company contributed to helping Indian media better understand readers by launching Question Hub, which is a tool where it provides users’ unanswered questions to publishers, so they can use these insights to create richer, better content for their audience. Google also said that it also works with Indian media through participation in regional GNI programs. Lessons from these programs are then shared to help more publishers.

As far as empowering newsrooms are concerned, Google said that last year it selected two Indian journalists as part of the 12 Fellows for the Google News Initiative (GNI) Newsroom Leadership Program, a collaboration between GNI and the Columbia School of Journalism, to develop the business and product expertise of emerging newsroom leaders from the Asia Pacific region. “Between our GNI APAC Innovation Challenges and GNI YouTube Innovation Funding, programs to fund projects that inject new ideas into the news industry, we awarded a total of 16 Indian media outlets, the company added.

More recently, Google launched the GNI Digital Growth Program in the APAC region, which has been designed with industry experts and news publishers across the world to help small and medium-sized news organizations grow their digital businesses. “As the world grapples with the implications of the pandemic on society and businesses, the significance of quality journalism has never been greater and we are committed to leveraging the power of technology to support it and help it reach wider audiences,” Google said.