Anadolu Agency trains journalists from 50 states

By Muhammet Tarhan

ANKARA (AA) - Anadolu Agency News Academy organized in-person and online training programs for 888 journalists from 50 countries across the globe this year despite the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The News Academy of Turkey’s leading news agency, which continues its activities under the agency's 100th-anniversary vision and aims to share the organization's centennial journalism experience with media representatives from different continents, organized training programs in 27 categories throughout the year.

Continuing its trainings during the pandemic, the News Academy organized online programs for the first time in this context.

- Rise in training programs

The News Academy training programs climbed by 58% in 2020 compared to the previous year, despite the outbreak.

While organizing training programs in 17 categories last year, the News Academy raised this number to 27 in 2020.

Accordingly, nearly an 80% rise in the total course hours was also reported this year as the News Academy provided 2,662 hours of courses, compared to 1,473 the previous year.

While a total of 567 media representatives attended the trainings in 2019, this number reached 888 in 2020, while another significant rise was noticed in the number of foreign media representatives attending the courses.

However, six trainings on war journalism planned to be organized for the agency personnel and international journalists were canceled due to coronavirus measures.

- New trainings in curriculum

The News Academy provides special training programs to train expert journalists in the field.

Along with the existing modules of energy journalism, diplomacy journalism, and next generation media, this year humanitarian journalism, data journalism, and defense reporting were also added to the curriculum.

In addition to theoretical journalism courses, the program also included practical courses such as journalism in crisis regions, drone training, and F keyboard training.

While 70 experts from Anadolu Agency's experienced staff lectured during the trainings, 22 guest lecturers participated in the programs and shared their experiences.

- Trainees from 50 countries

The News Academy shared Anadolu Agency's 100 years of experience in Turkish, English, and Arabic languages with media representatives from 50 friendly countries throughout the year.

A total of 466 international journalists, including media representatives from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific region, and Central Asian countries, participated in the trainings.

The successful journalists were given certificates.

- Joint trainings

The News Academy this year has expanded the program's content as well as the diversity of the participants

The academy organized 10 trainings jointly with the Turkey's Cooperation and Coordination Agency and two with the country's Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities.

As part of the program, Anadolu Agency's experienced reporters gave lectures on internet journalism, news writing techniques, social media applications, news and infographics, as well as images and photo shooting.

- In-house trainings continue

The in-house trainings of the News Academy for the Anadolu Agency employees continued throughout the year, both in-person and online, with protective measures against the coronavirus outbreak.

These trainings also included programs on news language, diction, agency reporting, UAV-1 certified drones, and F keyboard.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev