On the fourth year of its activities, dokuz8NEWS has expanded into a new area of operations by starting Development of Data Journalism in Turkey Project, with MATRA funding from the Netherlands.

ADVISORY BOARD HAS HAD ITS FIRST MEETING IN ISTANBUL

After setting the project task-force, dokuz8NEWS has held an advisory board meeting with representatives of the institutions that operate in relevant fields, activists and journalists interested in the thematic topics. One of the core missions of the advisory board is to connect the many layers and parts of data journalism field in Turkey as a bridge between the news center and civil society organisations, unions, platforms, activists and journalists. [caption id="attachment_10516" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Advisory Board Meeting[/caption] First meeting of the dokuz8NEWS Advisory Board has been held in Istanbul on January 20, Saturday with the agenda of communicating the goals of the project, its scope, details and targets.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS STATED THE CONDITIONS OF DATA IN THEIR FIELDS

REPRESENTATION OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE ADVISORY BOARD

On the first meeting of Advisory Board, Equal Rights Monitoring Association EŞHİD representative Nejat Taştan, United for Democracy DİB spokesperson İrem Afşin, Human Rights Association IHD Istanbul Branch Chair Lawyer Gülseren Yoleri, Social Policies Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association SPoD Board Member, Müge Akbasan, Contemporary Journalists Association ÇGD Ankara Branch Chair Çınar Livane Özer and journalists Elif Ilgaz and Filiz Gazi have discussed data curation, collection and publication in their fields, and named the physical situation, problems and needs of the fields.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CAPACITY BUILDING IN THE FIELD OF DATA JOURNALISM

ÇGD’S MEDIA MONITORING REPORTS EXPERIENCE

SPoD’s Müge Akbasan also spoke during the advisory board meeting on the collection of data in the field of social gender matters and how there is a need for direction in order to support the psycho-social projects of the assocaition. Journalist Filiz Gazi mentioned the details of her work related to news pieces she has been covering on the medical faculties, while journalist Elif Ilgaz mentioned the temporariness of the “Journalists Outside Bars” that does not collect data while there is a need for such an initiative. Çınar Özer who has responded to the need, stated that ÇGD publishes a quarterly Media Monitoring Report that reveals the data collected regarding the conditions for journalism in Turkey.

REGARDING MATRA PROJECT FUNDS

dokuz8NEWS Data Journalism Project is funded by the government of the Netherlands through MATRA fund which is distributed to projects that support positive social change in countries that have candidacy, potential candidacy or are listed in neighbourhood policy with the European Union.