Data Journalism

Cindy Royal, Ph.D.

School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Texas State University

cindyroyal.com

Find this presentation at slideshare.net/cindyroyal

Realities

• Computers will be a part of any media career and most other careers

• Social media is not just something you do for fun.• People will get information in a variety of embedded and

atmospheric ways.• Data, data everywhere.• Game dynamics will inform

storytelling.• Things change. Rapidly.

Data Projects

• TXStateofChange.com

Data Projects

HTML/CSS, Drupal, JQuery, VIDI, Google Chart Tools, ManyEyes, HighCharts.com, Google Earth and various visual tools to work with multimedia including Photoshop, iMovie, Premiere Pro and Final Cut

Data Projects

Mobile

• SXTXStories.com

Mobile

Hackathon

Graduate Curriculum

• Issues in New Media• Online Media Design• Advanced Online Media• Content Management

Systems

Radical Curriculum Proposal

• Flip the curriculum. Teach digital, integrate traditional skills.• Curriculum must include:

• Programming concepts• Web design and development• Mobile Development• Data and data visualization• Programming for content management systems

Radical Curriculum Proposal

• Journalism is a specialized used of many fields• Computer Science ≠ Web Development• Design is a key element in being able to communicate

effectively• Data, data, data• Knowledge of statistics

also important• Need for different

teaching methods• Reach different audiences• Rise of learn-to-code movement• Jobs for people with these skills!!!

Radical Curriculum Proposal

• If we don’t move aggressively and efficiently toward this:• Journalism curricula will increasingly grow irrelevant• Someone else - another department, organization – is

going to fill that space• Students won’t have the 21st century communication

skills they need to be successful in their careers• Communication is two-way - connecting and sharing.

And providing meaning to data and information. This needs to be the foundation of any media curriculum.