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10 data journalism projects that made an impact in 2020: our ultimate COVID-19 roundup
DataJournalism.com celebrates some of the most noteworthy covid-related data stories of 2020.
Harnessing Wikipedia's superpowers for journalism
Finding hidden data inside the world's free encyclopedia is no easy task for journalists. In Monika Sengul-Jones' long read article, she explains how to navigate the often unwieldy world of Wikipedia.
Own your newsfeed, own your data
In a fragmented world, can you keep all your news sources and items in one place? Yes, you can. As long as you are intentional, consistent, and use a few simple techniques and tools, things can only get better.
Inside the FinCEN Files: How ICIJ analysed damning data on big banks and dirty money
More than 85 journalists in 30 countries collaborated on the FinCEN Files investigation. It involved extracting data on more than $2 trillion dollars in transactions between 1999 and 2017 reported as suspicious to a US treasury department.
A journalist’s guide to US opinion polls
The more journalists know about polls, how they work and how to evaluate their quality, the closer they come to clarity and accuracy in reporting. We explore resources and advice from experts on how to cover polling data in the 2020 elections.
Challenging election disinformation with data
Disinformation has become a major factor in the 2020 American presidential campaign. We explore the methods manipulators use to inflame political and social tensions and what journalists can do to stop being easy targets.
Capturing racial justice protests with data
The use of verification tools and open source investigation techniques were essential in exposing police brutality, racism and the need for change.
Coronavirus coverage: giving a voice to the vulnerable with data on your side
From The New York Times to the Associated Press and ProPublica, journalist Sherry Ricchiardi explores how journalists can tell stories about the impact COVID-19 is having on society's most marginalised groups.
Mastering data for better business journalism
From handling projections and estimates to navigating company reports, veteran journalist Erik Sherman explains how to use data to tell more understandable and accessible business stories.
Reporting beyond the case numbers: How to brainstorm COVID-19 data story ideas
While many journalists around the world report the daily infection rate and death toll of COVID-19, audiences are seeking other stories that show the impact of the virus on their lives. How can journalists tell those wider stories with data?
Simulating a pandemic
The most-read piece on The Washington Post's website visualised how pandemics like COVID-19 spread and how social distancing can flatten the curve. We explore the impact of the simulations and how graphics reporter Harry Stevens did it.
Data, diets and disease
Public health reporting has the potential to empower communities. Yet, medical research is easy to misreport. Aneri Pattani explains how to understand medical research data, challenge it, and, of course, report it accurately and ethically.
Bringing the power of data to deadline stories
There’s often a perception that data journalism is reserved for investigative projects or in-depth reporting. MaryJo Webster explains how to tell powerful quick turnaround stories with data -- all on a deadline.
The unspoken rules of visualisation
Designers often follow a set of strict conventions when creating visualisations. Kaiser Fung examines the fundamental rules of data visualisation, why they are important, and when it is okay to break them.
Journalism first: doing advocacy with data on your side
Often referred to as the fourth estate, journalism is key to a democratic society. But sometimes just reporting on an issue isn’t enough. To promote accountability, Eva Belmonte explores how data is blurring the lines between advocacy and journalism.
Tackling math anxiety in journalism students
In a world where journalists are also ‘numbers’ people, teachers need to find innovative ways to overcome their students' math anxieties. Using research from other disciplines, Kayt Davies outlines fun exercises that can be used in any classroom.
Geographic information systems: a use case for journalists
Geographical information systems, or GIS, provide one of the most efficient means of uncovering spatial patterns in geographic data. Jacques Marcoux provides a walkthrough of how GIS tools can be leveraged for original news content.
The dos and don'ts of predictive journalism
Bad predictions, especially in high-stakes stories, can be more than confusing and misleading -- they can be dangerous. G. Elliott Morris draws on examples from political journalism to describe some guidelines for good predictive journalism.
Data journalism: a guide for editors
Editing investigations is challenging enough, but particularly when you're not familiar with data methods. Maud Beelman and Jennifer LaFleur share guidance for project editors on best practices for workflows, bulletproofing, and writing techniques.
De-identification for data journalists
Personal information is often mixed in with data that are vital to a story, raising ethical questions around publication. Vojtěch Sedlák covers four techniques to de-identify data and simple ways journalists can introduce them into their workflows.
Data journalism in disaster zones
In emergencies, the rapid evolution of events, combined with unreliable information and data, mean that journalists run the risk of rushing reports without double-checking accuracy -- or worse, getting caught in the storm themselves.
Hard data and soft statistics: a guide to critical reporting
It is generally believed that numbers are hard and judgements are soft. But metrics and indices are much softer than we would like to think. With case studies from Africa Check, Morten Jerven covers the basics of cross examining statistics.
7 countries, 9 teachers: a dossier of data journalism teaching strategies
What are the most effective ways to introduce students to data? From Ireland to Kyrgyzstan, there's a lot to be learnt from teachers all around the world.
Let’s get physical: how to represent data through touch
Humans have been embedding data into the properties of physical objects for millennia, so why don't modern journalists? Alice Corona explores the newsroom benefits of producing data physicalisations, along with a tutorial to help you get started.
Evidence of a solution: using data to report more than just bad news
While data journalists often produce rigorous reporting about social issues, there is less on responding to the same problems. Brent Walth provides an overview of solutions journalism frameworks, and why they're important for data journalism.
Designing data visualisations with empathy
How do you get audience members, much less the journalists presenting a story, to walk a mile in the shoes of a dot? Or a bar chart? P. Kim Bui provides three approaches for achieving empathy in data visualisations.
Data in the air: a guide to producing data journalism for radio
When we think of data journalism, we usually don't think of radio. Yet, data can power all forms of reporting, even those that aren’t visual. We spoke to six data experts to uncover best practices for representing data through sound.
Privacy and data leaks
From the Snowden revelations to the Panama Papers, reporters and editors face complex decisions when it comes to reporting on leaked data.
Spreadsheets for journalism
Many journalists see themselves as “word people” and shy away from writing about numbers. Brant Houston shows how to embrace math with an overview of spreadsheets and functions for beginners.
Putting data back into context
Data are never neutral ‘givens’, but always situated in a particular context, collected for a particular reason -- and it’s crucial that data journalists understand these.
Data journalism on the blockchain
When we talk about blockchain and journalism, the focus is often on trust and sustainability. But the technology also opens up a whole new world of data for journalists to explore.
The essential lies in news maps
In order to display three-dimensional world we live in, journalists are forced to distort reality. And every map does so in its own way. Maarten Lambrechts looks at commonly used maps and how to avoid being misled by them.
Debunking with data: insights from fact-checkers around the globe
Armed with data, fact-checking organisations work tirelessly to help separate facts from fiction, and any misnomers in-between. Here's how they do it.
West Africa Leaks
Over several months, an investigation team poured over 27.5 million documents to reveal how Africa's elites hide billions offshore. Did these documents ever mislead them? How did they verify? Will Fitzgibbon and Daniela Lepiz answer your questions.
9 questions about the World Cup, and how data journalists answered them
The 2018 World Cup might be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the data journalism that it inspired. We collated a full roundup of data journalism that dissected, predicted, and queried the World Cup.
How to watchdog algorithms
What happens when algorithms go wrong? Nick Diakopoulos wants to refocus the traditional watchdog role of journalists and hold powerful algorithms to account.
Robots can save local journalism, but will they make it more biased?
Major newspapers across Europe have found a solution to protect local journalism: robot journalists. But, will robot reporting ever be entirely neutral? Alexander Fanta looks at the potential biases in robo-journalism.
What civic media practice looks like for data journalism
In the contemporary climate of distrust, how can data be leveraged to reimagine social issues? The Engagement Lab at Emerson College spoke to 40 American civic media practitioners to find out.
Data journalism and the ethics of publishing Twitter data
Reporting and handling Twitter data, which can contain personal or sensitive content, requires an ethical mindmap. Luckily, we have one.
Wrestling with dirty data
Data will often arrive on your doorstep with a problem -- or two, or three, or four. In the data journalism world, we call this ‘dirty data’. Usually it’s not bad enough to stop your great idea. But first you need to identify the problems.
Ethical questions in data journalism and the power of online discussion
How do data journalists make ethical decisions? Using case studies from gun permit reporting, this article showcases the power of online discussion in solving ethical dilemmas.
Editorial transparency in computational journalism
As computational methods become more prevalent in the newsroom, Jennifer A. Stark examines the standards and expectations for ensuring editorial transparency.
Giving data soul: best practices for ethical data journalism
By holding a magnifying glass to systemic flaws in society, data journalism can encourage positive change. Conversely, when published without context or consideration for ethics, it can cause harm through the perpetuation of stereotypes and biases.
Recoding accountability journalism: how to make your best reporting even better
Accountability journalism represents the very best journalism in the industry. But even the best journalism has been disrupted by the emergence of social media. How can we regain and retain our distracted and distrusting audiences?
Data visualisation trick: make every country on a map the same size
Geographic maps can be very illuminating, but sometimes bigger countries overshadow smaller ones, leading to false assumptions. Overcome this problem is by creating a map where all countries are the same size.
Building data journalism in investigative newsrooms
Bahareh Heravi interviews Mar Cabra about the power of using data for investigative projects.
Communicating large amounts: please, no more football fields
When journalists try to communicate large amounts, they have a tendency to measure area in multiples of football fields, and volume by Olympic swimming pools. But this isn't always the most effective approach.
Keeping with The Times: lessons from the paper’s data journalism editor
Despite the growing interest in data journalism in academia and newsrooms, there is a lack of systematic research into this domain, resulting in a divide between academic and industry practices. Bahareh Heravi bridges the gap with Megan Lucero.
When data writes…who is the author?
If a robot wrote this article, you may not know it. The movement to produce automated content has accelerated in the past few years. But editorial policies have not kept up.
What is a ‘data state of mind’?
With a 'data state of mind', you can start producing stories right away -- even if you barely know your way around a spreadsheet.
Reinventing news values for data journalism and ‘clickstream culture’
From audience metrics, to spreadsheets and databases hoovered up during news-gathering, Dick Murray looks at how the explosion of data in journalism affects the news.
Get curious about data: lessons on how it all works
Where does data come from? What can journalists do with it? And what happens once they're done with it? Jonathan Stray explores these questions and more.
Why understanding margins of error matters in journalism
Because these can easily lead to bad conclusions, technical misunderstandings raise important ethical challenges. Jonathan Stray highlights a straightforward problem that is often ignored: the margin of error in the available data.
What is the best way for journalists to learn D3.js?
The ability to create interactive visualisations is a widely sought skill in newsrooms. But non-coding journalists often feel nervous getting started. Scott Murray provides valuable advice on learning D3.js and when to expect productivity.