Data journalism and data visualization become more and more important in the new media landscape, while most of the journalists need to acquire skills like how to collect, organise, analyse and present data at an advanced level. Our research report highlights the role of data journalism in the four partner countries of NEWSREEL and how this field appears in the higher education of Germany, Hungary, Portugal and Romania.
Data journalism in the media
Regarding data journalism in practice, this field needs to be improved in all four NEWSREEL countries. Although there are some good practices everywhere, the number of data journalists are very low even in Germany, which has the highest number of data journalists among the partner countries (about 50). This number is in sharp contrast with the Hungarian reality, where only one journalist calls himself a data journalist.
In phase 2 of the project we have developed detailed syllabi for establishing the structure of the e-learning materials of phase3 and embedding these materials into the programs of journalism studies. Each partner country has developed one syllabi, therefore we have 4 syllabi in the following topics: Data Journalism and Visualization by the University of Bucharest, Collaborative Journalism by the Erich Brost Institute, News Media Business, Innovation and Project Development by ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon, and Ethical Challenges in Digital Journalism by the University of Pécs. In the materials the discipline objectives, the content of the courses are available, as well as the compulsory and additional bibliographies.
The syllabi can be downloaded from here:
Data Journalism and Visualization
Collaborative Journalism
News Media Business, Innovation and Project Development
Ethical Challenges in Digital Journalism
At the end of phase2, the representatives of NEWSREEL presented the four developed syllabi in the framwork of a 'Future journalism curricula workshop' . The program was held at the Law Faculty in the University of Bucharest on 25 September 2018 and was opened by Prof. Mihai Coman, Dean of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies. First of all, the representatives of NEWSREEL introduced their syllabi for the local and invited international audience of academics and practitioners. NEWSREEL was represented by:
Gábor Polyák and Annamária Torbó, University of Pécs, Hungary - Ethical challenges of the digital public sphere
Ana Pinto Martinho and Miguel Crespo, ISCTE - Lisbon University Institute, Portugal - New business models of journalism
Tina Bettels-Schwabbauer and Nadia Leihs, Erich Brost Institute, Germany - Collaborative journalism
Emilia Șercan and Marian Popovici, University of Bucharest, Romania - Data journalism and data visualization
The research report with the title of "New Skills for the Next Generation of Journalists" was presented by the team of the Department of Communication and Media Studies from the University of Pécs (Hungary), the Erich Brost Institute (EBI) (Germany) and representatives of the ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal) and the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies from the University of Bucharest (Romania).
The first dissemination event was held at the "Bundespressekonferenz" in Berlin on 14 June where the representatives of the research group presented the results of their comparative study for an international audience. Faced with new framework conditions in journalism in times of digitization, the researchers have dealt with the need for a new generation of journalists. The aim of the study is to strengthen the European democratic public toward to the new conditions.
The presented report concentrates on the teaching of journalism and the different prerequisites in the education of the participating countries. It specifically focuses on the four aspects of data journalism, collaborative journalism, new business models and media ethics. The results of the research are based on an analysis of the university programmes' curricula in the four countries as well as on interviews with journalists and journalism educators in Hungary, Germany, Portugal and Romania.
The aim of phase 1 of NEWSREEL was to ground the development of syllabuses and teaching materials that can be incorporated in journalism education at universities and that are able to reflect on the needs of the stakeholders in the participating countries. The initial conditions – e.g. the state of journalism education regarding new skills and tools of journalism, the spread of journalistic performances based on new skills and tools – are different in the participating countries, and these are not necessarily mapped in published analyses. Therefore in the previous months we have done interviews with representatives of the selected universities' journalism departments, as well as with practising journalists in each country. Besides the interviews, we have also analysed the curricula of the selected departments, especially that how our four specific fields - data journalism, collaborative journalism, new business models and ethical challenges - are integrated into the education. If you are interested in our results, you can reach the full research report here:
Title photo: Judith Wiesrecker
