Justina Asishana

2021 Shortlist

Country/area: Nigeria

Organisation: The Nation Newspaper, Nigeria

Organisation size: Big

I am Justina Asishana, I have been working as a Journalist for the past seven years. I am a graduate of the National Open University of Nigeria and began my Journalism career as a Staff with New Nigerian Newspaper before moving down to Daily Newswatch newspaper and after it went down, I began writing for The Nation Newspaper where I am currently employed.

In 2019, I recieved a training on Data and Investigative Journalism by the Premium Times Center for Investigative Journalism in Nigeria and in 2020, I recieved another training on Data and Solutions Journalism by the Pan Atlantic University in Nigeria. After these trainings, I have tried my best in infusing data and infographics into my reporting.

I am inspired in infusing data and infographics into my reportage because it makes it easier for the people to understand and due to the limited reading span of an individual, I realize that they relate and understand the infographics more than straight reporting.

During this period, I was contacted by the African Women Journalism Project (AWJP) to write reports regarding COVID-19 and they encouraged the use of data and infographics, this made me embrace the fellowship and used a lot of infographics in my stories with the help of those in the project.

I have realized that although there is limited data in Nigeria but Journalists can either generate data on their own or use the available data and infuse it into their reportage, this, I think would make journalists embrace data journalism and not see it as too cumbersome. I am inspired to using and infusing data into my reportage because it is interesting and fun of making something complex into a simple process where the people in can understand.

I should be considered for this award because it would give me an opportunity to expand my network in data journalism and connect me with other experts who will take me through the new aspects of days journalism. It would also boost my zeal in writing more data oriented stories.

Lastly, it has been on my mind to improve the capacity of journalists who are my colleagues on Data journalism and how they can infuse data into their reportage.

Description of portfolio:

In my portfolio, I have various data stories relating to health, finance and women issues; majority of the project was done with a focus on the impact of COVID-19.

In the virus pandemic story, it was difficult in getting data of women affected financially by COVID-19, while a lot of people were confessing to have lost their jobs, the only available data in Nigeria was by the National Bureau of Statistics and the data did not really focus on women. A data analyst in the Africa Women Journalism Project helped in drawing the visualization.

In the family planning story, “baby boom looms in Niger”, I used data gotten from health centers I visited. I drew up the visualization myself, so also is the deforestation story.

The other story was done in collaboration with a data analyst who designed the visualization with the data I presented.