Interviewing Your Data: Tools and Methods for Data Journalists

online course

Free media is essential to hold the less-than transparent governments of Central and Eastern Europe to account. Key political and business actors are increasingly obfuscating their actions and limiting data access to escape public scrutiny. Effective investigative journalism requires a set of skills for obtaining and working with large datasets, and interpreting the patterns emerging from such data.

This course will bring together junior journalists and researchers from the CEE regions with global experts of data journalism with the aim of teaching the necessary tools and methods, as well as to build professional networks.

This one-week course will cover four topics:
finding and obtaining data: open data, large-scale data platforms, freedom-of-information requests, web scraping
working with data in various formats, cleaning messy and purposefully obfuscated data with OpenRefine
building stories from data, ethics of working with large datasets
principles of effective and truthful visualization
Classes will be hands-on, where learners use their own computer to access the tools and technologies taught and discuss problems in small groups. A key component of several modules is “live demo,” where instructors and learners work on their problems together. This practice enables effective learning with frequent interaction and feedback from instructors and peers.

Course leader

Eva Bognar
Center for Media, Data and Society, Democracy Institute, CEU, Budapest, Hungary
Miklos Koren
Department of Economics and Business, CEU, Vienna, Austria/Budapest, Hungary
Arieda Muco
Department of Economics and Business, CEU, Vienna, Austri

Target group

Target group
This course is intended for junior journalists working in small to medium newsrooms or journalism projects. Students pursuing a career in journalism can also join. We also invite applications from advanced undergraduate students who have adequate prior study or engagement experience on the subject and make a compelling case in their application/statement of interest.

Pre-requisites
Good English and access to a personal laptop required. No specific computer experience assumed.

Course aim

This course will bring together junior journalists and researchers from the CEE regions with global experts of data journalism with the aim of teaching the necessary tools and methods, as well as to build professional networks.

Credits info

1 EC
A Certificate of Attendance will also be awarded upon completion.

Fee info

EUR 200: payable until May 28

Scholarships

A limited number of tuition waivers will be offered on a competitive basis restricted to currently enrolled students from Open Society University Network (OSUN) and CIVICA member universities. OSUN students may also apply for scholarships.