Learn how to find the story in the data

Data journalism is a hot buzzword among journalists in South Africa these days, yet very few journalists or newsrooms are actually practicing it. And a big part of the problem is that journalists believe that they need to be tech ninjas to be a data journalist.

All too often this perception is reinforced by some of the data journalism training offered that is taught by non-journalists and focuses on the tech and is light on the most important ingredient: the ability to spot and tell a story. I know of several local journalists who have attended training far too advanced for their basic skills – and ended up being put off data journalism. So when [Code for South Africa] (http://www.code4sa.org) decided to run a [Data Journalism Winter School] (http://www.code4sa.org/winterschool) for working journalists we decided that we would try and experiment and begin with the final story.

Behind this idea is the mantra: ‘It’s data JOURNALISM, not DATA journalism” and puts the story first, but doesn’t exclude the other aspects.

So first we’ll show people stories we found in data sets and then work backwards, illustrating how we did it and showing them how to use the tools we used. Participants will need to have a basic understanding of Excel and we’ll teach them how to find, clean and filter and order data, but using simple tools built especially for journalists that get the job done without having to be a techie.

The course will run over three days and then participants will work on their own data-driven stories, returning for a half day a week for three weeks for help and advice on their projects. For info on how to apply go [here.] (http://www.code4sa.org/winterschool)