Kim Heintz

Data-driven journalism: What is there to learn?

24 August, 2010, Amsterdam

“Opening up content and data produced by public bodies will enable new forms of reportage as well as a new generation of services enabling the public to participate in the news making process. New tools to analyse, represent, deliver and give context to public data are beginning to revolutionise the way we understand large and complex issues, from Hans Rosling’s analysis of flu statistics, to the Guardian MP expenses crowdsourcing tool, and to the Afghanistan Election Data project. An ecosystem of open data that anyone can reuse or contribute to will be critical for a new generation of data driven journalism to flourish”

- Jonathan Gray, community coordinator, The Open Knowledge Foundation, UK

Ten, even five years ago, the use of data as a basis for reporting was difficult and costly, requiring IT skills far beyond what is common in media. Databases were used mainly by investigative journalists. Editors and reporters usually relied on information provided by outside sources.

Today there is a notable change. Collections of data are becoming available online, often for free. There is a whole stack of tools to dig into ‘big data‘. Open source tools allow navigation and analysis of large amounts of data rather quickly. There are online applications that allow us to share and visualise data.

Developing the know-how to use the available data more effectively, to understand it, communicate and generate stories based on it, could be a huge opportunity to breathe new life into journalism. Journalists can find new roles as ’sense-makers’ digging deep into data, thus making reporting more socially relevant. If done well, delivering credible information and advice could even generate revenues, opening up new perspectives on business models, aside from subscriptions and advertising.

In this context, the European Journalism Centre in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam organises the first round table on data-driven journalism. The one day event brings together specialists in fields which intersect with data-driven journalism: data mining, data visualisation and multimedia storytelling to discuss the possibilities of this emerging field, examine and understand the needed tools and workflows, and spread the know-how for data-driven journalism. What can we learn from the existing projects? How can we integrate the existing tools in the journalistic workflows? What skills are needed to enter this field? These are just a few of the issues which will be addressed in this event.

The programme includes speakers from: The New York Times (US), The Financial Times (UK), The Times (UK), The University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), The Open University (UK), The Open Knowledge Foundation (UK), Medienkombinat (Germany) Hacks/Hackers (US), OWNI (France) IBM (France), Ultra Knowledge (UK), KB Consulting (Germany). The roundtable is chaired by Mirko Lorenz, DDJ Project leader, EJC and Innovation projects, Deutsche Welle.

To share your suggestions and insights on what is needed for journalists to enter this promising field, please join the data-driven journalism group on the EJC Online Community. To attend the event, please fill in the online application form.

There is no registration fee but the attendees are expected to arrange and cover their own transportation and accommodation.

For more information:
Liliana Bounegru
European Journalism Centre
Email: bounegru@ejc.net
Tel: 31 43 325 40 30

Another trend that can be used for both good and bad. How will the public know it is unbiased? It’s like statistics…