This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Data Journalism Handbook | |
|---|---|
| Name | Data Journalism Handbook |
| Author | Open Knowledge Foundation, European Journalism Centre, multiple contributors |
| Country | International |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Data-driven reporting |
| Publisher | Open Knowledge Foundation, European Journalism Centre |
| Pub date | 2012 (first edition) |
| Pages | varies by edition |
Data Journalism Handbook
The Data Journalism Handbook is a practical reference compiling guidance on data-driven reporting, investigative techniques, visualization practices, and project case studies from leading newsrooms. It gathers contributions from journalists, technologists, academics, and civic groups to document workflows, tools, and ethics for turning datasets into publishable stories. The handbook functions as both a training manual and a collaborative manifesto shaping curricula, newsroom practices, and open-data advocacy.
The handbook synthesizes approaches used by practitioners at organizations such as The Guardian, ProPublica, The New York Times, BBC, and Al Jazeera and links to projects at institutions like Harvard Kennedy School, Reuters Institute, Knight Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, and Open Knowledge Foundation. It presents chapters on data sourcing from portals such as Data.gov, European Data Portal, UK Data Service, and datasets produced by agencies like World Bank, United Nations, International Monetary Fund and Eurostat. Contributors discuss investigative examples including reporting on Panama Papers, LuxLeaks, Football Leaks, Paradise Papers, and other high-profile leaks, as well as collaborative initiatives like ICIJ and OCCRP.
Originating from workshops and conferences hosted by European Journalism Centre and Open Knowledge Foundation, the handbook grew out of collaborations among entities including Knight-Mozilla OpenNews, DataKind, Sunlight Foundation, Bureau of Investigative Journalism and university programs such as Columbia Journalism School and City, University of London. Early drafts drew upon case studies from newsrooms like Chicago Tribune, ProPublica, The Washington Post, and experiments with civic tech groups like Code for America and MySociety. The project reflects influence from standards initiatives including OpenStreetMap mapping practices and open-license movements championed by Creative Commons.
Organized into thematic sections, the handbook contains chapters on data acquisition, cleaning, analysis, visualization, and publishing. It references methodologies employed by reporters at The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El País, and regional outlets such as The Hindu, Süddeutsche Zeitung, La Nación and Folha de S.Paulo. Technical appendices point readers to software ecosystems maintained by projects like R Project, Python (programming language), QGIS, Tableau, D3.js, GitHub, and Google Public Data Explorer. Ethical and legal guidance cites precedents involving institutions like European Court of Human Rights, US Supreme Court, Information Commissioner's Office, and international frameworks such as General Data Protection Regulation and Freedom of Information Act regimes.
Practical toolkits described draw on open-source and proprietary systems used by practitioners at NPR, CBC, ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), Süddeutsche Zeitung DataLab, and startups like Datawrapper. Chapters explain data wrangling using libraries and environments from Pandas (software) and tidyverse, geospatial techniques with PostGIS and Leaflet (JavaScript library), statistical methods associated with Stan (software), SPSS, and reproducible workflows via Jupyter Notebook, RStudio, and version control via GitHub. Training examples reference courses and MOOCs from edX, Coursera, and programs at Northwestern University, University of Oxford, University of Amsterdam.
The handbook influenced curriculum design at schools such as Columbia University, City, University of London, University of California, Berkeley, and inspired initiatives at foundations including Knight Foundation and Ford Foundation. Reviews and citations appeared in outlets and platforms like Nieman Lab, Poynter Institute, Mashable, Wired (magazine), and academic work at MIT Media Lab, Oxford Internet Institute, London School of Economics, and University of Toronto. Its case studies informed investigations that won awards from institutions such as the Pulitzer Prize, European Press Prize, Investigative Reporters and Editors and recognitions by Global Investigative Journalism Network.
Multiple editions and online revisions feature contributions from a wide range of practitioners: journalists from The Guardian and ProPublica; technologists affiliated with Mozilla Foundation and Open Data Institute; academics from Columbia Journalism School and London School of Economics; and civic groups like Open Knowledge Foundation, Code for America, and mySociety. Editorial input includes individuals associated with Simon Rogers-era projects, teams behind Panama Papers at ICIJ, and editors from European Journalism Centre. Later editions and translations were supported by partnerships with newsrooms such as El País, La Repubblica, Zeit Online, and educational bodies like Institut für Rundfunktechnik and regional media hubs.
Category:Journalism books