DATA AND JOURNALISM. BETWEEN BIG STORIES AND DIRTY SURVEILLANCE

In cooperation with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (FHP) and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI)

8 to 13 September 2014, Potsdam/Germany

This year’s M100 Young European Journalists Workshop will consider the theme of ‘Data-driven Journalism’ (DDJ). In cooperation with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, the participants will be taught about the basic applications and technologies of data-driven journalism.

According to Lorenz Matzat, founder of the data journalism agency Open Data City, data-driven journalism does "not just count on data records as a source of research, but also makes the data a central point of the story and its presentation. In doing so, it lies at the intersection of three areas: firstly, visual journalism or infographics, secondly multimedia and interactive storytelling and thirdly investigative journalism“ (source in German click here). In addition to research in databases, data-driven journalism also includes the analysis, validation, visualisation and publication of data.

Data-driven journalism goes far beyond the mere reproduction of statistics and tables. Journalists focusing on data actively employ data records, for example to substantiate and visually represent theories with figures, or to research journalistically relevant stories. In the last two or three years, the use and application of data has increased dramatically in importance for editorial teams, as has the addressing of ‘open data’ and ‘open government’. Terms such as ‘data mining’, ‘scraping’, i.e. the scraping of websites to obtain raw data, or the use of real-time data are just a few key words in this wide-ranging subject.

According to the MedienWiki platform: "Ambitious data-driven journalism brings with it many advantages: Journalists can verify stories on the basis of data, structure information, bring relevance to topics and gain new methods of telling stories. Understanding is growing amongst the public for the how and why of a situation. With interactive graphics, they can also decide for themselves how deeply into a topic they wish to go, and ambitious users always have the option of downloading the data for themselves and making their own interpretation of official data." Journalists who wish to deal seriously with this topic must therefore master the technology and tools of data-driven journalism.  

But the issue of the future of journalism, media freedom and the defence of democratic values in the era of big data is also to be discussed and illustrated in the workshop. To what extent is democracy endangered by data-mining security services and Internet companies? And how is the NSA scandal portrayed in other European countries? How, for example, has it been received in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro and Greece, and what ramifications are participants from these countries able to report for their media and society? How do they handle data, what role is played by the defence of press freedom, protection of sources and personal privacy in handling and working with data?

The M100 Young European Journalists Workshop aims to introduce 20 to 25 selected participants from all over Europe to both sides of dealing with data: both the technical principles as well as the professional, responsible use of data and its benefits, but also the risks faced every day as a journalist (please find the application call here). Not least, participation in the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium, which will be attended by 50 to 60 senior editors, academics, bloggers, politicians and representatives of major Internet companies from Europe and the USA on 12 September 2014. The subject of ‘Media Freedom in the Era of Big Data’ will be discussed in two sessions, giving the participants a deeper insight and knowledge of this subject (for more information please click here).

Data Journalism Portals
http://www.theguardian.com/data (Data Store, The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog (Data Blog, The Guardian)
http://datadesk.latimes.com/ (Los Angeles Times)
http://blog.zeit.de/open-data/  (Zeit Online, Kai Biermann)
http://www.zeit.de/datenjournalismus (Zeit Online)
http://www.nzz.ch/aktuell/data/ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
http://datajournalism.stanford.edu/ (Journalism in the Age of Data. A video report an data visualization as a storytelling medium)

Relevant Links
http://datadrivenjournalism.net/
http://govwild.org/
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/meinel/knowledge_tech/blog_intelligence.html
http://www.blog-intelligence.com/
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/meinel/knowledge_tech/semantics.html#prior-events-and-activities
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/meinel/knowledge_tech/semex.html
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/doellner/research.html
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/naumann/teaching/bachelorprojekte/vip_20_celebrity_exploration.html
http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/naumann/kdm_research_group.html
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/05/what-data-journalists-need-to-do-differently/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
http://www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/programmes/data-journalism-awards/