Putting a human face to a data story
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday December 19, 2022 06:00
The boot camp brought statisticians from Statistics Botswana (SB), the Ministry of Health, the National Aids and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), public relations professionals, journalists, WHO officials and other stakeholders under one roof at the WHO boardroom.
The event had brought the stakeholders together, ‘to learn how to work together more effectively to increase the use of health data and statistics in the media.” Namboze highlighted that she has noticed that with journalists when there is data in pertinent reports, they will often times choose to go around it.
Her emphasis was that, “it’s about the people behind the statistics.” Her encouragement was that the media reports should add a human face to all the data that they present to render the stories more appealing, informative and relevant to the readers.
Statistics Botswana (SB) Statistician General Dr Burton Mguni, whose organisation was amongst the organisers of the event, was convinced that journalists from the boot camp would be able to employ easier means to communicate the data story. “With the collaboration of partners, we intend to educate the media more on this pertinent training to ensure that the practitioners are really equipped in that area,” Mguni told the boot camp.
Responding to some of the questions that emerged from the floor of the workshop, he explained that professional independence of Statistics Botswana is enshrined in the Act and as such there were no interfering external hands in their duties.
Joining the boot camp virtually from Paris, Francois Fontenau, head of Paris 21 was impressed by, “the success in honestly discussing issues on the quality of data usage.” Most importantly, the boot camp provided a “conducive environment for media and public relations professionals to learn how to find and access reliable data and statistics as well as build an understanding on how to use these.” Statisticians were elated that the boot camp offered them an opportunity to learn how to present data and statistics in a way that is usable for the media, understanding what information and what formats are required.