Budding reporters from City of Wolverhampton College picked up tips from industry professionals when they were visited by a Google expert.

The students, who are all on the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism course, were treated to a talk by Matt Cooke, head of Google News Lab.

Mr Cooke visited the college as part of the company’s Digital News Roadshow, which has also seen him speak to professionals in London, Cardiff and abroad.

They were joined by journalists and PR account managers from across the region and beyond, keen to find out about how they could use Google to enhance their work.

Matt, a former producer, reporter and presenter at BBC News, explained how the search engine could help reporters gather information and put it into a reader friendly format. This included searching, public data, trends, maps, statistics and fusion tables, which help create maps, charts, graphs and timelines.

NCTJ course leader Dani Wozencroft said: “It was great to have Matt attend the college to speak about the use of Google News Lab and the work they are doing.

“His talk was very informative and I imagine, as a result, the stories which appear in the newspapers and on the websites of publications across the Midlands will now be enhanced with extra graphics and interesting information for the public.

“There was a great deal of interest in the talk when we opened it up to industry professionals and our students benefitted from learning alongside them.

“I know Matt is incredibly busy and I really appreciate him taking the time to come to Wolverhampton and bring both his journalistic and Google knowledge to us here.”

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