Data Journalism Conversations

Our latest podcast discusses how open source intelligence can power your environmental investigations. Sam Leon from DataDesk and Ben Heubl from Süddeutsche Zeitung talk us through their investigative pieces using OSINT to uncover hidden stories of environmental wrongdoing. We also hear the tools and data skills used to find and tell such stories.

The intersection between race and environmental justice has never been more apparent. As more vulnerable communities bear the brunt of climate change, how can climate journalism reflect their experiences? In this episode, we spoke with Dana Amihere, founder of AfroLA News, and Melba Newsome, a freelance journalist focused on environmental justice issues. The duo take us behind the scenes by sharing how they cover these issues. We also hear what data sources help them to find stories and inform their climate reporting.

For decades journalists have examined the global ramifications of climate change on the international stage. But as local communities become more impacted by extreme weather, journalists need to deliver reporting on climate justice through a local and solutions lens. In this episode, we spoke with Alex Harris from The Miami Herald and Tahmid Zami from Thomson Reuters Foundation. The pair draw on their reporting and data skills sharing their experiences of covering climate change from the United States to Bangladesh.

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. So what can data journalists do to help audiences understand this complex issue and help evade audience apathy? Powering your climate stories with visualisation is one way to awaken emotion and inspire change. To delve further into this, we caught up with information designer Duncan Geere, data journalist Pei Ying Loh from The Kontinentalist, and visual journalist Rodolfo Almeida from Nucleo. They talk us through their climate stories and share their best practices for visualising climate solutions journalism.

In our latest episode, we spoke about the importance of using collaboration to tell better data stories. Muckrock's Betsy Ladyzhets and Dillon Bergin talk about the power of working with local journalists and scientific experts to find hidden stories. The pair also give us an overview of Muckrock's tools that can help journalists hold governments to account.

In our latest episode, we spoke about the importance of archiving data journalism. Bahareh Heravi from The University of Surrey and Simon Rogers from Google discuss the challenges and the solutions to address this growing problem of lost content.

In our latest episode, we sat down with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to discuss the Uber Files. The investigation, first leaked to The Guardian, reveals how Uber flouted laws, duped police, exploited violence against drivers, and secretly lobbied governments during its global expansion. Data journalist Karrie Kehoe and data & research editor Emilia Díaz-Struck talk to us about what was involved in investigating and building a narrative around this massive data leak of 124,000 files.

This episode explores how to approach data journalism in a closed-information society like Iran. We spoke to Tehran Bureau's Marketa Hulpachova, director of investigations and research at the independent media outlet. She explains the economic challenges for everyday people inside the sanctioned country and how these protests differ from previous ones. We also learn how her corruption investigations use publicly available information to explore the business ties and growing wealth of leading figures in the Iranian regime.

This Conversations with Data podcast episode explores how journalists are grappling with Freedom of Information requests around Europe. We hear how the UK, Ireland and Romania's access to information laws differ, along with the challenges in successfully filing FOI requests and navigating the appeals process.

This Conversations with Data episode explores how journalists from Texty.ua, The Insider and OCCRP cover the Russia-Ukraine War with data. We also examine how data collection processes work for the humanitarian sector with ACAPS.org and what this means for reporting on the conflict.

This Conversations with Data episode explores how journalists from CNN and the Financial Times are covering the Russia-Ukraine War. We explore how innovation can help cure war fatigue among audiences and journalists can leverage this moment to create new forms of data storytelling.

This Conversations with Data episode explores how journalists from The New York Times, Bellingcat and AFP are covering the Russia-Ukraine War with open source investigation techniques and tools.

This episode features a conversation with Adolfo Arranz from Reuters Graphics and Pei Ying Loh from The Kontinentalist. The pair speak to us about the rise of data journalism in Asia and how accessible open data is throughout the region. We also hear about the importance of working with local organisations on data storytelling to unearth untold stories.

This episode features a conversation with Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University, Michelle McGhee from The Pudding and Carmen Aguilar-Garcia from Sky News. The trio speaks to us about breaking into data journalism and the numerous educational paths one can pursue. Drawing on the panel's mixed experience, we also hear advice on transitioning from a technical or general news role into data storytelling.

In our latest conversation, Mollie Pettit from Data Visualization Society talks to us about using human-centred design for her data visualisation work. Drawing on her circuitous career path, she speaks to us about her favourite projects and provides learning resources for those new to the field. Finally, she gives us the inside take on this week's Outlier Conference happening February 4-5, 2022.

In our latest conversation, veteran journalists Brant Houston and Stephen Doig talk to us about the evolution of data journalism from the 1950s to the present day. The pair identify the leading pioneers and data stories that defined the field. Finally, we hear some interesting future predictions about what new innovation we can expect in 2022.

In this episode, Bloomberg's Sinduja Rangarajan talks to us about using data to find and tell stories examining systemic inequality. She opens up about the power of community when covering critical issues like immigration. We also hear some helpful career advice for journalists new to data storytelling.

This episode features data journalist Eva Constantaras and data scientist Htet Aung from the investigative outlet Lighthouse Reports. The pair talk to us about leading a cross-border investigation examining the policies of vaccinating Europe's undocumented people. We also hear about the data gathering, documentation and methodology process for this open-source investigation.

In this episode, data journalist and social entrepreneur Natalia Mazotte talks to us about the media landscape in Brazil, along with organising the CODA Festival, Latin America's biggest data journalism conference. She also opens up to us about her chapter in the second Data Journalism Handbook and its release in Portuguese.

This episode features ICIJ's Pierre Romera, who takes us behind the scenes of the Pandora Papers, the largest cross-border investigation of its kind. He explains how the ICIJ's infrastructure and bespoke tools helped hundreds of journalists dig through 12 million leaked files that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful.

This episode features Code For Africa's Jacopo Ottaviani & Tricia Govindasamy. The pair speak to us about the state of data journalism in Africa citing data-led journalism projects and initiatives, including WanaData, InfoNile and Mapping Makoko.

This episode features Clayton Aldern, a data reporter at Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organisation dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions. He talks to us about a joint investigation led by Grist and the Texas Observer examining abandoned oil wells in the Permian Basin region of the United States. Using data analysis and machine learning, the investigation found that state governments gravely underestimated the number of wells that need to be cleaned up along with the costing models.

In this week's episode, we spoke with OCCRP editor Antonio Baquero and Le Monde journalist Maxime Vaudano about the OpenLux investigation. The duo discussed exploring the hidden side of the Luxembourg offshore industry based on open data released from the government.

This episode features data journalists Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere, the co-hosts of "Loud Numbers", the new data sonification podcast. The pair speak to us about what sonification means for data storytelling and what stories work best for this medium.

In this episode, data journalist Marie Segger talks to us about launching The Economist's "Off the Charts" data newsletter. We also hear about her career path into data journalism and her advice for generating data story ideas.

In this episode, data journalist Eva Constantaras and open data researcher Anastasia Valeeva talk to us about the power of building a data hypothesis for telling stories about forgotten communities. The conversation also draws on the pair's vast experience of teaching data journalism around the world.

Vaccinologist Dr Melvin Sanicas speaks to us about the current state of the global vaccine rollout. He explains how different vaccines are working to protect populations exposed to the delta and delta plus variants. We also hear about the latest research in regards to mixing vaccines to fight against growing variants. Finally, he explains how boosters work and why they especially matter for the immunocompromised.

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features Ben Jones, the CEO of Data Literacy, a company whose mission is to teach you to speak the language of data. In this episode, he speaks to us about how data journalism can be used to close the data literacy gap. He also talks to us about his new book, "Learning to See Data: How to Interpret the Visual Language of Charts".

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features Maarten Lambrechts, a freelance data visualisation consultant based in Belgium. In this episode, he talks to us about how he helps organisations like the World Bank communicate their numbers by evaluating, designing and developing static and interactive visualisations. He also explains how he developed his coding and design skills for a career in data storytelling.

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features Jan Diehm from The Pudding. As a senior journalist engineer, she explains her creative process for generating visual story ideas and what coding languages she uses to design visual essays.

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features Professor Deborah Stone of Brandeis University. She speaks to us about her latest book "Counting: How We Use Numbers to Decide What Matters". She also talks to us about how policymaking is shaped by the worship of numbers and why we should be sceptical of "quantitative imperialism".

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features Lisa Charlotte Rost. As a data visualisation designer and blogger for Datawrapper, she talks to us about the DataVis Book Club she organises and how data visualisation has grown since COVID-19.

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features economist and data visualisation expert Jonathan Schwabish. As founder of PolicyViz, he speaks to us about his latest book "Better Data Visualizations: A guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks".

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features investigative data journalist Matthew Kauffman from the Solutions Journalism Network. He talks to us about how data journalists can apply a solutions-oriented mindset to their reporting to show a path forward to society's most pressing problems. Matthew also explains how data and solutions reporting are the perfect partners for doing better journalism.

Our latest Conversations with Data podcast features investigative journalist Pavla Holcová from OCCRP and Investigace.cz. She talks to us about using data to investigate the February 2018 murder of her colleague Slovak investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee.

In this week's Conversation with Data podcast, we caught up with Denise Malan, interim executive director at IRE. She talks to us about this year's upcoming NICAR conference happening 3-5 March 2021. She also provides useful advice on building your data journalism skills in the newsroom.

In this week's episode of Conversations with Data, we caught up with vaccinologist Dr Melvin Sanicas to discuss the new COVID-19 variants and how they will impact the vaccine rollout programmes around the world.

In this week's episode of Conversations with Data, we caught up with Sam Dubberley from Amnesty International. As head of the Crisis Evidence Lab and Manager of the Digital Verification Corps, he talks to us about running open source investigations to uncover human rights abuses. He also provides some useful training resources for journalists and activists new to the field.

Navigating Wikipedia is no easy task for journalists. We are often told to steer clear of it. But the free encyclopedia is full of data sources for your next story. Listen to researcher Monika S. Jones read her DataJournalism.com piece originally published in December 2020.

In this week's episode of Conversations with Data, we caught up with Professor Heidi Larson, an anthropologist who is director and founder of The Vaccine Confidence Project. She talks with us about vaccine hesitancy along with her new book, "Stuck: How Vaccine Rumours Start and Why They Don't Go Away".

In this episode of Conversations with Data, we spoke with Shaida Badiee, Open Data Watch's managing director. She talks with us about the latest Open Data Inventory -- a global open data index measuring the openness and coverage of official statistics across 187 countries.

In the latest episode of our Conversations with Data podcast, we spoke with science journalist and author Betsy Mason about how journalists can effectively use maps to help visualise stories. She also explains how bad design, geographical quirks and perceptual illusions can confuse audiences, particularly when it comes to election maps.

In this week's Conversations with Data podcast, Financial Times columnist and BBC presenter Tim Harford talks to us about his latest book "How to Make the World Add Up". As an economist and journalist, he talks to us about the power of statistics and why they aren't just a tool for debunking misinformation.

In this week's Conversations with Data podcast, Micah Cohen, FiveThirtyEight's managing editor, talks to us about the uncertainty of opinion polling data in the upcoming US elections. He also provides some useful advice for journalists covering the election results on November 3.

This week's Conversations with Data podcast features Emilia Diaz-Struck, research editor and Latin American coordinator at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. She talks to us about the FinCEN Files, ICIJ's latest cross-border investigation that uncovers the role of global banks in industrial-scale money laundering. She discusses what it takes to manage collaborative data-led investigations with hundreds of journalists around the world.

In this week's Conversations with Data podcast, data designer Stefanie Posavec and data journalist Miriam Quick talk to us about the concept and creative process for their latest collaboration, "I Am a Book. I Am a Portal to the Universe." Dubbed "a love letter to book design", it unlocks an understanding of the world around us through fascinating data measurements.

This week's Conversations with Data podcast features Alberto Cairo, the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication of the University of Miami. As an expert in data visualisation, he is also director of the visualisation programme of the Center for Computational Science. He talks to us about the latest edition of his new book "How Charts Lie", his favourite resources and why he thinks data visualisation isn't magic.

This week's Conversations with Data podcast features Professor Charlie Beckett, the founding director of Polis, the LSE's media think-tank. He talks to us about Polis' JournalismAI project and the findings from its global survey of journalism and artificial intelligence.

This week's podcast features a conversation with Professor Nicholas Diakopoulos who heads up the computational journalism lab at Northwestern University. He explains how A.I. can assist journalists in discovering, composing and distributing stories and discusses his new book, Automating the News: How Algorithms are Rewriting the Media.

This week's podcast features a conversation with Leonardo Milano who heads up the predictive analytics team at the United Nations OCHA Centre for Humanitarian Data. He discusses how the humanitarian community is using predictive modelling and projections to anticipate, respond and prepare for emergencies around the world.

Analysing and communicating uncertainty in data has never been more important for journalists. But what is the best way to interrogate data and deem it trustworthy? This week's podcast features a conversation with Professor Denise Lievesley from the University of Oxford. She discusses what data journalists can learn from statisticians and the parallels between the two professions.