Internews 2013 data journalism fellowship winners

Internews in Kenya has named five new health and data journalism fellows. The fellows from different media houses in Kenya include: Two print journalists, a TV journalist, a developer and a graphic designer.

The recipients were chosen based on their strong commitment to health journalism, compelling stories and visualisations and potential to tell data driven stories in the future.  

“I did not expect to get the fellowship but I will take the challenge. This is a great opportunity to expand my health journalism,” says The Star newspaper journalist Sam Otieno.

For the first time, the Internews in Kenya health fellowship will involve a graphic designer and developer. “I am happy. This is a great opportunity to learn new tools of telling stories,” says Michael Mosota, a senior graphic designer with the Nation Media Group. He will be joined in the fellowship by David Cheseret, a developer with over five years experience in digital media, web design and software programming.

The panel of judges – Nganga Mbugua, an associate editor with The Daily Nation, and health journalists Gatonye Gathura from The Standard and Violet Otindo from K24 – also selected The Standard’s senior investigative journalist Paul Wafula and Mercy Juma, a broadcast journalist at NTV.

This 16-week fellowship is a practical and customized programme in which the fellows will get an opportunity to learn how to access, mine, analyze and visualize data using digital tools. They will also gain an appreciation of interconnections in data – with the ultimate aim of unearthing stories buried in data.

The fellowship, which will explore reporting on malaria, family planning, maternal and child health and HIV, will start in August. It offers mid-career broadcast and print journalists, designers and developers an opportunity to take time out from the newsroom to enhance and polish their health and data journalism skills while engaging in high quality, high impact health journalism.

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