Learn Key Techniques and Practices Used in Data Journalism - Free Course

Learn key techniques and practices used in data journalism, the role of ethics and standards in journalism, how discipline, order and planning are essential for successful investigative journalism, and much more.

ALISON’s free online course on “Data Journalism and Media Standards” introduces you to the tools and techniques of data journalism, the role of the free press in society, and the practices used to hold journalists to account. You will learn how to find data on the web, how to request it using freedom of information laws, and how to use screen-scraping and crowdsourcing from readers. You will also explore the laws, statutes and codes that determine the conduct required of news organizations.

Data Journalism and Media Standards Course Content

The course Data Journalism and Media Standards introduces you to the methods used by journalists in gathering and utilizing online data, as well as the use of freedom of information requests for government and public records. The use of blogs and the rise of the citizen journalist are also explored.

The course includes the following topics:

The ever-growing set of tools, techniques, and approaches to storytelling known as data journalism;
The four main obstacles to the use of data in journalism;
How to access and request data;
Three key concepts to understanding data;
Data literacy;
The responsibilities of a free press in a free society;
The right of access to government proceedings;
What rights are essential in order for journalists to do their jobs;
Four distinct and identified privacy torts;
The ethics of journalism;
How a blog publisher can still be sued for material he writes;
The classification of a journalist;
How journalism enhances civil society;
Nine types of FOI exemptions;
How to produce investigative journalism to international standards.