Deep Dive into Data Journalism – Online (AM)

Take a deep dive into data journalism by combining “Finding Stories With Data – Online, Intensive” (4 sessions: 13, 15, 16, 17 March 2023) with “Data-Driven Investigations – Online, Intensive” (5 sessions: 27-31 March 2023). Organised by The Centre for Investigative Journalism.

Finding Stories with Data

Class duration: 1.5hrs x 4 days (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)
Level of participation: very high. Hands-on, screenshares, regular Q&As and participants contributions.

In four workshops you will learn what data is available and how to find it, how to interrogate it and find facts or patterns in it which will lead, inform and enhance the stories you tell.

There is of course a limit to how much practical knowledge can be exchanged in each 90 minute session, so supporting material is supplied online. Although there is no formal assignment or “homework” during the course, participants who can devote 30-60 mins of practice between sessions tend to get more out of the course.

Guided by one of our data trainers, with decades of experience pushing the frontiers of data-driven investigations, you’ll come away with the skills to start gathering, interviewing and presenting data for your own reporting projects.

There are lots of courses which teach data journalism skills, but no others have the specific focus on using these tools and techniques for investigations and holding power to account that is the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s speciality.

The course is composed of four sessions of around 1.5 hours each, scheduled over 4 days, with exercises and recommended reading to augment your learning between sessions.

Data-Driven Investigations

Class duration: 2hrs x 5 consecutive days (Monday to Friday)
Level of participation: very high. Hands-on, screenshares, regular Q&As and participants contributions.

The data is rarely the story in itself. This course will help you find the human face to add impact and relevance.

The central aim of the course is for attendees to work on live projects throughout the sessions and leave with their own stories at an advanced stage of research, so we strongly recommend that you approach the course with an idea already in mind for a data-driven story.

This course will be divided into 5 workshops designed to take you through the steps to build a lead into a full investigative story. Drawing from real life examples and scenarios, we will guide attendees from hypothesis to story, including sections on working with spreadsheets, scraping and importing data, investigating people and companies and the latest tools and techniques.

We offer a 10% discount for those who choose to book both courses as a package. To benefit from this offer, book your place for this two-course package by completing the booking form at the bottom of this page.

Signed-up participants must attend all nine sessions.

Technical Requirements

This course will need you to have the following software/apps/tools on your computer:

• MS Excel 2016 or newer (If do not have access to Excel, there is a free trial version available). We encourage the use of MS Excel (that is, the desktop “app”: the online version of Office 365 lacks some of the features you will need). If necessary, you can use Google Sheets, which has slightly different menus and instructions, but the trainer doesn’t always have the opportunity to demonstrate both systems in the session: he will certainly try, but you may find you need to do some extra work outside the session to catch up.
• Zoom app. During these sessions the trainers often need participants to be able to share their screen in order to solve problems or demonstrate techniques: if you are on a work computer, or other device which has screen sharing on Zoom disabled, please consider getting the restriction lifted for the duration of this course. If you can’t share the screen because the function is blocked or disabled, it makes it much harder to solve problems and learn from them. But, rest assured, nobody will be forced to share their screen against their will!
• Camera and audio
• This course will be hosted on Zoom. To find out more about how we use Zoom, please check out our Zoom InfoSec page.

Course Structure

Exercises and additional viewing of tutorial videos will be provided to supplement the training between sessions.

Important

Our training is not recorded: if you miss a session, it is lost – you cannot watch a recording of it, nor will you be allowed to attend that session at a later date.

More info: https://tcij.org/scheduled-training/deep-dive-into-data-journalism-online-am-7/