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.
I’ll be holding a special ‘Taster Day’ on June 11 for anyone interested in studying journalism at postgraduate level — specifically data journalism (which includes a part time PGCert option for those already working in the industry) and multiplatform journalism (full time only).
I’ll be making time in both sessions for questions and discussion about postgraduate study and developments in journalism.
If you are interested in attending either event, please sign up on the Eventbrite page here. Drop me a line on Twitter @paulbradshaw or email paul.bradshaw@bcu.ac.uk if you have any questions!
Students from the MA Data Journalism join conference attendees in a session at the Data Journalism UK conference
In this second extract from a commentary for Asia Pacific Media Educator I reflect on the lessons learned from a decade of teaching dedicated data journalism courses. You can read Part One — on teaching one-off data journalism classes — here.
In contrast to the one-off classes involving data journalism, courses and modules that focus on data journalism skills present a different type of challenge.
These courses typically attract a different type of student, and provide more time and space to work with.
My own experience of teaching on such courses comes from three contexts: in 2009 I launched an MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University with an explicit focus on data-driven techniques (the term “data journalism” was yet to be popularised). A year later I acted as an advisor to the MA in Interactive Journalism that City University London were then developing (delivering guest classes in data journalism for the following 5 years as a visiting professor). Finally, in 2017 I replaced the MA in Online Journalism with a dedicated MA in Data Journalism at Birmingham City University.
In this post I talk about the factors that shaped course design, and how student output compared to the objectives of the course. Continue reading
image: Haymarket
One of the industry partners for the MA in Data Journalism is Haymarket Automotive (What Car?, PistonHeads and Autocar) — we’re now inviting applications from people who are particularly interested in studying data journalism in relation to the automotive sector. In other words, data motoring journalism!
You should have a passion for journalism and retail journeys, cars or the car industry, be interested in helping find new sources of data for stories, and working on stories based on data collected by third parties, and have lots of ideas that tap into the power of data-driven journalism.
Editorial director Jim Holder explains:
“The automotive industry is awash with historic data, from car specs to buyer behaviour, and populated by experts who believe they know how to produce and read it. But our brands – and buyer’s guide What Car? in particular – have unique access to live data from in-market car buyers. Harnessed properly, the data has the potential to surprise and delight the car industry, and car buyers – and shake-up outmoded suppositions and attitudes.”
Successful applicants approved by Haymarket will work with a Haymarket Automotive brand during part or all of their MA studies.
If you are interested, please apply through the course webpage specifying in your supporting statement that you are specifically interested in working with Haymarket Automotive.
Opportunities are also available to work with FourFourTwo, or The Telegraph, or a number of other news organisations.
Earlier this year I announced a new MA in Data Journalism. Now I am announcing a version of the course for those who wish to study a shorter, part time version of the course.
The PGCert in Data Journalism takes place over 8 months and includes 3 modules from the full MA:
The modules develop both a broad understanding of a range of data journalism techniques before you choose to develop some of those in greater depth on a specialist project.
The course is designed for those working in industry who wish to gain accredited skills in data journalism, but who cannot take time out to study full time or may not want a full Masters degree (a PGCert is 60 credits towards the 180 credits needed for a full MA).
Students on the PGCert can also apply to work with partner organisations including The Telegraph, Trinity Mirror and Haymarket brands including FourFourTwo.
More details are on the course webpage. If you want to talk about the PGCert you can contact me on Twitter @paulbradshaw or on email paul.bradshaw@bcu.ac.uk.
One of FourFourTwo’s infographics – they want to expand the organisation’s ability to produce social-friendly data-driven content
I am now inviting applications from people who are particularly interested in studying data journalism in partnership with FourFourTwo.
You should have a passion for football and sports journalism, be interested in helping find new sources of data for stories, and working on stories based on data collected by third parties, and have lots of ideas that tap into the power of data-driven sports journalism.
Global digital editor Gary Parkinson explains:
“We are very aware of the power of social media – we have a monthly reach of around 60m from our various accounts – and as part of that have been exploring the shareability of data visualisation and infographics. We also have scheduled major online events which would benefit from dataviz, such as our annual #FFT100 Best Players In The World.”
If you are interested, please apply through the course webpage specifying in your supporting statement that you are specifically interested in working with FourFourTwo.
The Telegraph was behind one of the biggest data journalism stories of the last decade
As part of the new MA in Data Journalism we have partnered with a number of organisations who are keen to bring data journalism expertise into their newsroom.
I am now inviting applications from people who want to work with The Telegraph during their MA in Data Journalism at Birmingham City University.
The Telegraph has a long history of data journalism, most famously breaking a series of stories around MPs’ expenses in 2009. Examples of its data journalism – ranging from sport and politics to text analysis and data video – can be found in its TeleGraphs section.
The news organisation is looking for applicants who are interested in developing the ability to clean and analyse data to find interesting stories; an awareness of tools that you can use to source and scrape data; and a knowledge of data visualisation in order to communicate your stories. Successful applicants will learn these skills on the MA course and have the opportunity to apply them in collaboration with The Telegraph. Continue reading
Computational thinking helps you break down a problem and solve each part logically. Image from BuzzFeed Tennis investigation
Today I will be introducing my MA Data Journalism students to computational thinking techniques (you can read my post about why that’s important here). As part of my preparations I’ve been collecting some of my favourite examples of computational thinking being used to spot and execute data journalism stories – and I’m sharing them here…
This story, published in the UK tabloid newspaper The Mirror, is a great example of understanding how a computer might ‘see’ information and be able to help you extract a story from it. Continue reading
Cogs image by Stuart Madeley
This network diagram comes from a Channel 4 News story
The best-known examples of data journalism tend to be based around text and visuals — but it’s harder to find data journalism in video and audio. Ahead of the launch of my new MA in Data Journalism I thought I would share my list of the examples of video data journalism that I use with students in exploring data storytelling across multiple platforms. If you have others, I’d love to hear about them.
Freedom of Information stories are one of the most common situations when broadcasters will have to deal with more in-depth data. These are often brought to life by through case studies and interviewing experts. Continue reading
Online Journalism Blog 