Why newsrooms and journalism schools need data journalism

The birth of the fourth industrial revolution has meant that newsrooms, globally, have had to consider the future of news on a daily basis. As much as new technologies have presented media practitioners with new modes of storytelling, the rate at which new tech grows and emerges has also proven intimidating for some.

Where data journalism is concerned, technological advancements have made it easier for experienced data journalists to do the work they do. But this form of journalism remains largely unembraced globally and on the African continent. In spite of all the enigma surround data journalism, it would benefit African newsrooms to differentiate their offerings using the power of data journalism.

Data-driven journalism is the (relatively) new kid on the block with the ability to tell complex stories using engaging visualisations such as infographics. 

At its heels comes the advent of robotic journalism; the mystery of which can be dispersed by an understanding of data processing and data visualisation. After all, even robots require human input in order to produce news articles.

UNDERSTANDING DATA JOURNALISM

Paul Bradshaw, one of the fathers of data journalism, demystifies this fairly new field in his handbook for data journalism:

“What makes data journalism different [from] the rest of journalism? Perhaps it is the new possibilities that open up when you combine the traditional ‘nose for news’ and ability to tell a compelling story, with the sheer scale and range of digital information now available.”

“And those possibilities can come at any stage of the journalist’s process: using programming to automate the process of gathering and combining information,” notes Bradshaw.

This new skill allows a journalist to source data, identify outliers in datasets, and analyse the variables in order to tell a more impactful story. 

Yet in many newsrooms around the world, data journalism is still in its infancy, with its full potential waiting to be tapped into. 

It can only be expected that making the move from text-and-image-only reporting to data journalism can cause ambivalence. For many journalists, numerals are seen as undesirable or challenging with an exception for those working on the business desk.

But the ability to wrangle data in a newsroom requires teamwork. Well-resourced newsrooms may hire a researcher, a designer, and a data analyst to assist in the interpretation of numbers into news.

But for freelance journalists, data journalism poses a huge challenge as one is expected to perform the role of a researcher, analyst, designer, and storyteller without the beneficial collaboration.

This is not to say there is no hope for freelancers and lone-rangers. Those who have long left the world of sit-down classes have options too. There are many online resources that require very basic spreadsheet skills to successfully visualise data. 

THE STATE OF DATA JOURNALISM EDUCATION

Rosemary Orlale the Director of Africa Media Hub at Strathmore University Business School advocates for a three-pronged approach in data journalism practised on an ad-hoc basis. 

“The people currently doing data journalism are doing it in an ad hoc manner but we are currently doing it in partnership with Code for Africa and our approach is three-pronged: data storytelling, data journalism and data visualisation,” said Orlale

But the budding field is not without its own developmental challenges. In the absence of specialised degrees, journalism schools are bridging the gap by offering data journalism courses. 

Strathmore Business School is currently offering a data visualisation module in their Masters in Data Science. Their certified data journalism course is awaiting approval by the Higher Education Commission. Other courses being offered are Business Reporting and Financial Reporting using data.

Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Daystar University, Dr Wambui Wamunyu urged journalists to embrace new skills.

“You cannot go wrong in learning a new skill in any profession. In journalism, an understanding of the infrastructure that supports data journalism and digital journalism is important,” said Wamunyu. 

“I know there’s a fear of machines but they allow you to tell stories faster with Artificial Intelligence once you program the machine. It is happening now. Machine learning can accompany journalists.”

Associate Dean at Multimedia University of Kenya (MMU), Dr Wilson Ugangu said, “data journalism is taught as an element and not a full unit with elements of data analysis taught as part of in-depth investigative journalism course”. 

Meanwhile at the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) data journalism has been incorporated into the curriculum.

“We are currently reviewing the curriculum and we are in the process of it being approved by the Commission of University Education (CUE)” said Dr Joy Omwoha, the Academic Team Lead in the Department of Journalism Studies.

“We are currently teaching data journalism in another unit and our personnel are well equipped” added Omwoha.

Up until recently, data journalism has been treated as an optional accessory to the skill set of journalists. But it is apparent that as the world changes and robots start producing news stories, educational institutions are looking for ways to accelerate the uptake of data journalism while developing their academic offerings – an urgent and appropriate response to the changing times.

An initiative introduced by Wamunyu won the favour of students in the faculty and the university. Inspired by her Doctoral thesis on The Use of Digital Technologies in Newsrooms, the initiative offers data journalism presentations to small groups of students. 

“We have had workshops in partnership with Code for Africa in fact-checking and have data journalism presentations with small groups of students,” explains Wamunyu

“During one semester with our Elective Print students we introduced data journalism,” she said. This has led to the change of the curriculum to include data journalism.

While lip service is often paid to the practice of data journalism in Kenya, there is no quantifiable data available of practitioners in this specialised field. 

Newsrooms need to become tech-savvy and tech-forward in order to survive the rapidly-evolving world of technology. The traditional journalism lectures will not adequately hold the fort for much longer without embracing technology as more aspects of our world become digitised.