West Africa Google says it  plans to equip more than 6, 000 media professionals in the region on the appropriate use of Google tools in 2017.

Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade, the Head of Communications of West Africa Google made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.

He said that Google had already trained more than 300 media professionals in West Africa in the first quarter of the year.

“We are currently working on a programme where we can train thousands of media people across West Africa.

“Every discovery usually starts with a search. People usually go online and search for ideas, innovations and what is trending in the global world.

“Google has provided a platform for young people who are seeking to bridge the knowledge gap by connecting with people of like-minds in order to make their innovation a reality,” he said.

The communication officer explained that the focus on media was because of the extreme important influence as a primary mode of communication of informing the public on new developments.

“When the media knows most other people know. Helping the media to tell stories more interesting and also helping to ensure the media has the right tools to inform others is important to Google.

“That is why we have decided to embark on a massive training procedure to equip the media with the appropriate use of utilising the Google tools to their benefits,” he said.

Kola-Ogunlade said that basic data tools for media such as web basics, advanced search, trends, news verification and other social media search techniques were taught at the workshop.

He said that other tools such as storytelling with geography tools, web-stripping and data visualization were also added to make the workshop more informative and educative.