The medical commission of Wuhan initially identified the spread of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in late December 2019. The Chinese government immediately imposed a temporary lockdown in the Hubei Province. However, the highly transmissible virus had spread to numerous countries, including Indonesia.

On March 2 the next year, the Indonesian government announced the first COVID-19 case in Depok. Since then, the number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia rose and spread to other areas outside of Jakarta.

In such an extraordinary situation as a pandemic, journalists assume a critical role in presenting information on the latest situation and news in regard to COVID-19, such as the number of cases, government policies, public response, medical breakthroughs, medical analysis, etc. This information is passed on to the public who are in dire need of some guidance during an emergency. Therefore, journalists are the frontliners for eliminating disinformation toward the public.

On one hand, various data regarding COVID-19 reported by the government and NGOs can help journalists produce credible news from an in-depth perspective. On the other hand, the presence of such vast data can also arouse confusion among journalists when the available data is not consistent nor integrated across other organizations or government institutions. In addition, confusing data formats can also pose a challenge because they are too confusing to analyze.

Various news sites in Indonesia have shown their efforts in transforming COVID-19 data into simple graphic visualization or maps using the latest technology, which helps the general public understand the data better. However, without any data journalism literacy and knowledge of its ethics, attempts at creating news using the data and technology approach can result in misinterpretation from the public, and can even produce a journalistic product that is merely sensational instead of factual.

DCJ-CI 2022 will discuss the practices, challenges, and opportunities of data journalism in Indonesia during the pandemic, be it in the newsroom in Jakarta or in other areas across Indonesia with a high number of COVID-19 cases.

In addition, the experts in this conference will also showcase the best case practices of data journalism, explore new technologies and software, and exchange some knowledge and experience about data and technology journalism with other practitioners from the US and Indonesia.

DCJ-CI 2022 initially hosted several data journalism workshops in Jakarta (Special Capital District of Jakarta), Surabaya (East Java), Palembang (South Sumatera), Makassar (East Sulawesi), Banjarmasin (East Kalimantan), and Ambon (Maluku) on the topic of post-pandemic impacts in 2021.

We organized a workshop in 2019 focusing on data-based journalism to decrease the risk of disasters in three provinces in Indonesia: Central Sulawesi, West Sumatra, and Aceh. In 2021, another workshop was held in the same format but under a different theme, i.e. the pandemic. The goal of this workshop is for the committee to select the best participant that will present their data-based journalism report at the main event of DCJ-CI 2022 that will take place in Jakarta in late July 2022.

DCJ Conference Indonesia (DCJ-CI) 2022 will be the first bilingual conference in Indonesia focusing on data and computational journalism. This conference will present a number of experts from various countries, such as the USA, the UK, Nepal, Japan, Switzerland, etc. This seminar is fully funded by the Embassy of the United States of America in Jakarta (The State Department).

DCJ Conference Indonesia (DCJ-CI) 2022 aims to equip journalists with numerous skills and knowledge to eliminate or minimize disinformation when reporting pre-, during, and post-pandemic news. By assembling a panel of journalism and data technology practitioners from the US, Indonesia, and other countries, this conference can be a great opportunity for its participants to connect with the experts.