This presentation focuses on how Journalists can improve on their profession using the Information and Communication Technology tools. It discusses various tools for gathering ideas, publishing information and tools for fact-checking to prevent dissemination of fake news.

1. ICT AND JOURNALISTS:
ENHANCING JOURNALISM USING
DIGITAL TOOLS
Simeon Adedokun

2. INTRODUCTION
ICT, being a complementary,
facilitating, versatile and enhancing
technology has played a central
role in the 21st century revolution.
It is designed to enhance the
performance of human-oriented
tasks in all spheres of life. One of
the great ICT opportunities that
came with the 21st century is the
Internet which is remarkable world
filled with inexhaustible information,
ideas and imaginative possibilities
for communication.
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3. ICT IN JOURNALISM
Journalism is the practice of gathering,
writing and publishing news stories and
articles in newspapers and magazines or
broadcasting them on other media such
as radio, TV and the World Wide Web.
Nowadays, ICT has changed the skilled
practice of journalism drastically; it has
greatly improved the ways of working for
sourcing and publishing information.
However, there are challenges being faced
using digital technologies in journalism,
especially the Internet. The major
challenges facing sourcing news online
are fact-checking to spot fake news and
libel issues, and avoid transmitting them.
In order to curb transmission of fake
news, ensure news authenticity and digital
safety for journalism, some digital security
tools have also been put in place.
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4. 4
Digital Research & Publishing Tools for Journalism
There are several ICT tools that make various aspects of
journalism—research, information gathering, fact-checking and
publishing news stories and articles—easier and faster. Though
it may be hard to decide which digital tools to use, some
digital—hardware gadgets and online—tools that are commonly
used by journalists are discussed in the next slides.

5. Tools for gathering
information and
finding sources
•
•
•
Audio, Video Recording and Photo
Capturing Tools such as
smartphone, digital camera, spy
pen, spy watch and other
surveillance technologies.
Google Alerts (www.google.com/
alerts) – it allows you to keep
track of the topics that interest
you by specifying words or
phrases that appear in news
stories.
Twitter (www.twitter.com) – one
of the best tools that make it
easy to find out about most
events in news, especially
breaking news from news reporters
and people you follow. 5

6. Tools for gathering
information and
finding sources
•
•
Drone Journalism – a newly
introduced technology in
journalism is the use of
drones for information
collection. It is has replaced
taking the past method of
taking aerial footage through
helicopter.
There are good communication
systems, such as Skype,
Hangout, Facebook and
Whatsapp that you can use to
contact your sources.
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7. 7
Tools for Storing & Organizing Information
•
•
•
DocumentCloud allows you upload, analyse, annotate,
collaborate on and publish primary source documents.
Evernote is a useful tool for capturing ideas, planning articles
and organizing information.
Dropbox and GoogleDrive are file storage and
synchronization services that allow you create and share
your work online and access documents from anywhere.
ournalism

8. 8
Tools for Storing & Organizing Information
•
•
Bookmarking services such as Delicious and Pinboard.
Storify helps you collate the information you are working
on. It allows you create stories using social media such as
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
ournalism

9. ICT Tools for Publishing
News Stories and Articles

10. TOOLS FOR
PUBLISHING NEWS
10
•
•
•
Blog: This is become a very popular tool that has given
journalists a simple way to publish their own copies of
news. Google Blogger and WordPress are the most
popular and easiest platforms.
Podcasting: producing a pre-recorded audio or radio
programme delivered over the Internet on regular basis
in a compressed digital format and designed for
playback on computers or portable digital audio players
such as mobile phones and iPod.
Self-publishing Video and Photos: Using smartphones
has made multimedia reporting much easier. Self-
recording of voice and video, capturing of photographs
and content sharing can be done on our mobile phones
and tablets. Free online tools for carrying such
publishing include Soundcloud for podcasts, Audioboo for
recoding and sharing soundclips, YouTube and Vimeo
for video publishing, Instagram and Pixlr for picture
editing.

11. 11
Digital Tools for Building Digital Safety for Journalism and
Fact-Checking
Fact-checking is very important in journalism. One of the major
challenges readers face with digital publication of news
stories is the authenticity of the news. Though digital self-
publishing frees journalists from editors, they have sole
responsibility for fact-checking and considering issues related
to written or pictorial false statements which can unjustly
damage someone’s reputation. A new tool for checking facts in
Africa is Africa Check [www.africacheck.org].

12. 12
It is a non-partisan fact-checking website based at the
journalism department of the University of the Witwatersrand
and it uses journalism skills and crowd-sourced information to
hold leaders to account by investigating specific claims. The
website also provides tips on how you can check the facts
yourself in the stories you are working on.

13. 13
CONCLUSION
Digital tools have become undeniably essential in journalism. They
are very important and relevant among journalists who are
employing new media of gathering and disseminating information.
ICT in journalism is cost effective compared to traditional
journalism. Other advantages of ICT in journalism are increased
efficiency, convenience and wide coverage with no geographic
barrier. We all need to utilize this great opportunity that came with
the 21st century appropriately to revolutionize and improve on our
chosen profession.

14. Simeon Adedokun
ayoade@simdols.com
234-806-0530-063
THANK YOU!