Monthly Archives: June 2019

FAQ: What are the essential computational skills that a journalist should develop?

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Blue skyscrapers

Recognising patterns is a key skill in computational journalism (image by Stanley Zimny)

This latest group of frequently asked questions comes from an interview with Source, published here in full just in case it’s — you know — useful or something…

1. What are the essential computational skills that a journalist should develop?

Firstly, an ability to recognise patterns, or structured information. Spreadsheets are explicitly ‘data’ but some of the most interesting applications of computational journalism are where someone has seen data where others don’t.

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GEN 2019 round-up: 4 videos to watch on the potential of data and AI

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Krishna Bharat

This year’s Global Editor’s Network (GEN) Summit, in Athens, Greece, had a big focus on the use of verification and automation. BBC News data scientist and PGCert Data Journalism student Alison Benjamin went along to see what was being said about artificial intelligence (AI), data and technology in the news industry. Here are her highlights…
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Here are 2 videos and slides from my MA/PGCert Data Journalism taster day

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Earlier this month I held a special open taster class at Birmingham City University for anyone interested in my full time MA and part time PGCert courses in Data Journalism. As some people couldn’t get to the UK to attend the event I put together two video screencasts recapping some of the material covered in the session.

I’ve embedded the two videos — and slides from the day — below.

And if you want to try out some of the hands-on activities from the class, you can find them here.

FAQ: How has social media changed journalism – and what does the future hold?

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tools on a shed wall

Tools image by Lachlan Donald

This latest set of frequently asked questions comes from a MA student at Coventry University who is researching Instagram. Their questions revolve around the impact of social media on journalism and Instagram in particular.

How are the new social media apps changing the way journalism is produced, distributed and consumed?

There’s a lot of scope in that question so in breaking it down it’s firstly worth making a distinction between apps (i.e. tools, used by producers to capture, publish and share) and platforms (i.e. a place where content is hosted).

So for example Instagram is a platform that hosts content which can be accessed on a tablet, or on mobile, or a desktop or laptop computer, but can also be published to through an app on mobile or tablet. Continue reading →