We swim in a world of data – from election results, budgets, and census reports, to Facebook updates and image uploads. Journalists and other communicators need to know how to find stories in data and shape them in compelling ways. It’s good storytelling and it’s good business as startup news organizations, legacy media and other brands are actively hiring data storytellers.
This 5-week course will teach you how to gather and analyze data to find stories and to visualize them as interactive narratives. This fast-growing discipline is at the crossroads of storytelling, statistical analysis and interactive design.
Sandeep Junnarkar, the former New York bureau chief of CNET News.com, has specialized in writing about technologies used in different industries. Junnarkar helped to create online editions of The New York Times, working as breaking news editor, writer, and Web producer when the paper went live on the Internet as The New York Times on the Web.
Session 1: Finding, cleaning and analyzing data
We look at datasets online; we clean them; we learn how to analyze them with sound statistical methods. We learn the ins and outs of Excel spreadsheets.
Session 2: Visualizing data
We use the latest plug-and-play Web tools to produce multimedia timelines, maps that highlight locations while telling a story, and photos and graphics with layers of added context.
Session 3: Scraping without code
Sometimes you need to create your own dataset. We use Outwit Hub to extract information from websites without code.
Session 4: Building an interactive data project
How do we make data engaging? We get our hands dirty and bring to life a sample dataset.
Session 5: Digging through unstructured data
We explore advanced techniques to find patterns in unstructured data.
Follow-up session (optional)
Join us a month after the workshop for a one-hour virtual follow-up session.
SuperResearcher with Barbara Gray: Jan. 7, 19, 21, 28.
Smarter Photos with Smart Phones: Jan. 23.
Chat Apps for News: Feb. 3.
How to be a Social Media Editor with Blair Hickman: Feb. 16, 23, March 1, 8, 15.
Intro to Adobe Premiere Pro CC: Feb. 24, March 2, 9, 16, 23.
Intro to Food Writing and Photography: March 19.
Intro to Food Writing and Photography: March 19.
Video for Social Media with Bob Sacha: March 30.
Visual Storytelling: Seeing the World in a New Way with Maggie Steber: April 4-8.
Sensor Reporting for the Environment with John Keefe: April 13.
iPhone Video with Bob Sacha: April 16.
Video Storytelling for the Web with Bob Sacha: April 23-24, and April 30-May 1.
Online Security Install Party with Mike Tigas: May 11.
Smarter Photos with Smart Phones: May 14.
Learn more and register here.
