Finding Stories with Data – Online, Intensive (AM)

You’ve heard people talking about data journalism, but don’t know where to start? Then this course is for you.

Class size: max 15 people.
Class duration: 1.5hrs x 4 days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) + 1.5 hrs self-directed learning on Wednesday.
Level of participation: very high. Hands-on, screenshares, regular Q&As and participants contributions.

In four workshops you will learn what data is available and how to find it, how to interrogate it and find facts or patterns in it which will lead, inform and enhance the stories you tell.

There is of course a limit to how much practical knowledge can be exchanged in each 90 minute session, so supporting material is supplied online.

Guided by one of our data trainers, with decades of experience pushing the frontiers of data-driven investigations, you’ll come away with the skills to start gathering, interviewing and presenting data for your own reporting projects.

There are lots of courses which teach data journalism skills, but no others have the specific focus on using these tools and techniques for investigations and holding power to account that is the Centre for Investigative Journalism’s speciality.

The course is composed of four sessions of around 1.5 hours each, scheduled over 4 days, with an additional 1.5 hours of self-directed learning guided by recorded tutorials and online materials. Signed-up participants must attend all four sessions.

Classes for this course are capped to keep them small and ensure practicality and interactivity.

You can also claim a 10% discount if you combine this course with our 5-module ‘Data-Driven Investigations’ course. For more information about this two-course package please click HERE.

“A really great introduction to using data to tell stories. Lots of very practical tools and techniques and a huge list of resources to support you going forward.”
Feedback 2021

“If you come from a non-tech background, but are interested in data, this is where you should start from.”
Feedback 2020

Technical Requirements

This course will need you to have the following software/apps/tools on your computer:

MS Excel 2016 or newer (If do not have access to Excel, there is a free trial version available). We encourage the use of MS Excel (that is, the desktop “app”: the online version of Office 365 lacks some of the features you will need). If necessary, you can use Google Sheets, which has slightly different menus and instructions – these are documented in the online materials, but the trainer doesn’t always have the opportunity to demonstrate both systems in the session: he will certainly try, but you may find you need to do some extra work outside the session to catch up.
Zoom app. During these sessions the trainers often need participants to be able to share their screen in order to solve problems or demonstrate techniques: if you are on a work computer, or other device which has screen sharing on Zoom disabled, please consider getting the restriction lifted for the duration of this course. If you can’t share the screen because the function is blocked or disabled, it makes it much harder to solve problems and learn from them. But, rest assured, nobody will be forced to share their screen against their will.
Camera and audio
This course will be hosted on Zoom. To find out more about how we use Zoom, please check out our Zoom InfoSec page.

Course Structure

Exercises and additional viewing of tutorial videos will be provided to supplement the training between sessions.

Important

Our training is not recorded: if you miss a session, it is lost – you cannot watch a recording of it, nor will you be allowed to attend that session at a later date.

22 January 2024 – Interview your data

10:00–11:30

This first session teaches you the primary functions of spreadsheet software for journalistic analysis. These functions will allow you to quickly and easily 'interview' your data, asking questions about what it knows and interpreting the answers. These techniques form the core of data journalism skills.

23 January 2024 – Finding data

10:00–11:30

Having sharpened your analysis skills on some sample data, you'll be keen to find datasets relevant to your own projects. This session will give you the best tips and tricks to find data that can inform your research and provide leads for new untold stories.

24 January 2024 – Importing, cleaning and tidying your data

Self-directed learning - No Zoom class on this day. Even when you know where to find data and how to analyse it, there are often barriers in your way. From the difficulties of working with incomplete and inconsistent data to the problem of 'data' being released in PDF format, this session will give you the tools and techniques to unlock datasets and clean them up, getting them into a form which you can analyse and draw meaningful conclusions from in as short a time as possible. This session comprises pre-recorded training videos and online tasks, with the opportunity to ask follow-up questions in the Module 4 Zoom session.

25 January 2024 – Telling your story

10:00–11:30

This session will focus on how to take the findings from your data research and pull them together into a coherent story. Data-driven stories often need some kind of visualisation and we will look at how to do these, telling stories and summarising data in graphs. But visualisation is not the only way to present your findings, so we will discuss when visualisations are necessary and when they’re not. We'll also consider what works well for a visualisation, and what is less effective.

26 January 2024 – Creating your own data story & visualisation

10:00–11:30

In this module we will bring together everything we have learned across the week in a practical group exercise involving analysing a new data set, finding a story, and creating your own visualisation. You will receive feedback from the trainer and your peers on your work, and we'll cover next steps for continuing to learn more about data journalism.

Jonathan Stoneman

Jonathan Stoneman is a freelance trainer specialising in data journalism. He has been working with data since 2010. Before that he worked at the BBC – as a reporter, producer, editor of output in Macedonian and Croatian, and finally as head of training at BBC World Service.

22 January 2024 10.00–11.30 Timezone: GMT (UK Time)
23 January 2024 10.00–11.30 Timezone: GMT (UK Time)
24 January 2024 Timezone: GMT (UK Time)
25 January 2024 10.00–11.30 Timezone: GMT (UK Time)
26 January 2024 10.00–11.30 Timezone: GMT (UK Time)

Timezone: GMT (UK Time)

Location: Zoom meeting

Fully booked:

29 January – 2 February 2024

Data-Driven Investigations – Online, Intensive (AM)

This course will give participants an opportunity to take their core data skills to the next level and combine them with advanced internet research for rich, in-depth investigations.

Fully booked:

22 January – 2 February 2024

Deep Dive into Data Journalism – Online (AM)

Take a deep dive into data journalism by combining “Finding Stories With Data – Online, Intensive” (4 sessions: 22-23, 25-26 January 2024) with “Data-Driven Investigations – Online, Intensive” (5 sessions: 29-31 January, 1-2 February 2024).