Further Reading
Even after you’ve learned the basics of analyzing and telling stories with data, there may still be many more advanced skills that you’re looking to master, as well as a whole host of thorny ethical and practical issues for you to consider. Perhaps you need to organize a data team, or learn how to bridge the gap between editorial and technology. Perhaps you’re concerned about following best practices for reporting on minority communities, or need help identifying data bias. This section includes a selection of resources that go beyond the basic “nuts and bolts” of data journalism.
- ProPublica Collaborative Journalism Playbook. The team behind the non-profit investigative journalism group ProPublica has spent years partnering with other outlets on ambitious data journalism stories. They’ve collected key learnings from those experiences in this handy and succinct guide to collaborative data projects.
- Journalist’s Toolbox (Data Journalism, Mapping). Presented by the Society of Professional Journalists, this website offers some of the most exhaustive lists of tools and resources for data journalists in topics like data visualization, sports data, data scraping and cleaning, and more.
- Open. The New York Times digital team gives readers a behind the scenes look at how they design and build digital products for the country’s most prominent newspaper.
- Data Journalism on Indigenous Communities (GIJN/NAJA Guide for Indigenous Investigative Journalists). This helpful guide provides a nuanced look at issues and considerations for anyone looking to tell data-driven stories about Indigenous communities, as well as practical strategies for finding reliable data on those communities.
- Equity & ethics in data journalism: Hands-on approaches to getting your data right. Created by the Knight Center for Journalism in the America‘s, this self-directed course provides useful insights for ensuring that equity and ethics are embedded in your data-driven reporting from the start.
- How to Organize A Data Journalism Team. This quick and easy-to-read guide gives editors and other organizational leaders a convenient checklist that they can refer to as they set about building their own dedicated, in-house data team.
- Microsoft Data Journalism Playbook. This detailed and playbook offers a comprehensive guide on data journalism, but is especially useful for those looking to learn how to get the most out of data analysis tools like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power BI.
- Data Journalism: An Introductory Guidebook. A comprehensive guide produced by Al Jazeera Media Institute, this resource is a useful one-stop shop for reporters who want to ramp up their first data storytelling project ASAP.
- Storybench. Published by Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, this website provides both practical “how-to” guides across a wide range of data science topics, and a mix of in-depth features and interviews with industry practitioners covering the current state of digital and data-driven storytelling.
- Data Journalism at the Guardian. This 2011 blog post by former Guardian news and data editor Simon Rogers comprises a round-up of ten useful and timeless insights into the nature of data-driven storytelling.
