Google is aiming to make bettter journalists of us with the launch of a new initiative called News Lab, which offers pen pushers access to Google’s data and tools, plus the training we need to transform that data into awesome stories.

News Lab was officially launched yesterday, but many of the tools in its box have been available for some time, or have been quietly rolled out in recent weeks. These tools include old familiars like Google Maps, Alerts and Public Data Explorer, a revamped Google Trends that emphasizes real-time data so journalists can report breaking news stories, and YouTube Newswire, a new channel devoted to showing off verified and newsworthy content.

Interestingly, this initiative is not just for amateur wannabe journos twiddling their thumbs on WordPress. It’s for journalists of every breed, and Google has partnered with a number of top media organizations to demonstrate how its tools can be used. These partners include a collaboration with CNN, showing the locations where presidential candidates are being searched for the most. Meanwhile The Washington Post used an interactive graphic in a story on climate change.

Google News Lab also comes with online tutorials to help reporters make the most of its new tools. There’s even some basic lessons for those who haven’t quite got to grips with Google Search, including tutorials on how to perform advanced searches and reverse image searches. Google has designed the lessons to be short and sweet, so busy journalists won’t waste too much time learning how things are done.

Besides working with bigger media organizations, Google also wants to lend a helping hand to “new voices” in media. As such, it’s focused on helping media startups with a partnership with Matter, a San Francisco-based media accelerator, and Hacks/Hackers, a community group for developers and journalists, in order to provide financial support and expertise from Google’s engineers that can help startups expand their impact.

Finally, Google wants to see more “citizen reporters” to ensure that user-generated news can be a “positive and game-changing force” in the media. To help encourage amateur hacks, Google is launching three projects – First Draft, the WITNESS Media Lab, and YouTube Newswire – in a bid to transform YouTube and other platforms into hubs of citizen reporter content from around the world.

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