Two-Day Workshop: Introduction to Data Journalism

Standard £300.00
Freelance/Student £250.00

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This workshop is intended to give a comprehensive introduction to the theory and techniques of modern data-driven journalism.

Combining theoretical elements, practical exercises and a bespoke online learning resource, this two-day workshop seeks to give you tangible data analysis skills that can be immediately applied to your journalism.

Despite being pitched at an introductory level this course will take you to a fully self-sufficient level. All the software used during the course will either be freeware or the commonly available versions of Microsoft Office. This course would particularly suit freelance journalists or journalists looking to establish a data analysis team within the context of a more traditional news room.

What you will cover:

• You will be introduced to the potential of data journalism within modern journalistic practice.
• Find the “So what?” within data journalism.
• Differentiate between good and bad data sources.
• Familiarise yourself with the full life cycle of data journalism from finding data, analysing data and then finally presenting data in a meaningful way.
• Use the web for collecting data in a more relevant way – meta search engines, data scraping and exploiting social networks.
• Analysing data – basic descriptive stats, social network analysis, quantitative vs qualitative analysis.
• Ethics and pitfalls of data journalism – what is legal and what is not?
• Get a practical introduction to more advanced techniques such as data mining and programming.

About the instructor:
Stewart K. Bertram is a career analyst, combining professional experience in Military and Cyber Intelligence with an MSc in Computing and an MLitt in Terrorism Studies from St Andrews. Prior to his current role as a freelancer, Bertram managed a cyber underground research team looking at the threats from cyber terrorism, cyber crime and cyber espionage. Learning his analytical skills in UK military intelligence he is keen to impart his skills to those with an interest in data and transparency.

What you’ll need:
This course is highly practical in nature and adopts the “talk a bit, do a bit” approach to learning. As such, each student will need their own computer with a copy of Microsoft Office (Excel and PowerPoint minimum).