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Stories and lessons from a data journalism team.
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How a South African data art project landed at the Venice Biennale
How a South African data art project landed at the Venice Biennale
Urban sociologist Caroline Kihato was used to working with data. But to turn it into art, she had to learn data visualisation. In a week.
Tanya Pampalone
May 18, 2023
Learning from disaster: How we told the story of South Africa’s deadliest storm
Learning from disaster: How we told the story of South Africa’s deadliest storm
One year after Durban’s 2022 floods, Media Hack Collective’s The Outlier wanted to find our how we can better prepare for the next one.
Tanya Pampalone
May 1, 2023
Our grocery basket comparison is a simple data project. And a huge hit with readers.
Our grocery basket comparison is a simple data project. And a huge hit with readers.
In 2022 South Africans were feeling the economic pinch. We collected price points from local shops to find out just how much it hurt.
Gemma Gatticchi
Mar 16, 2023
Data is at the core of health journalism.
Data is at the core of health journalism.
At South Africa’s Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism collecting, analysing , fact-checking and visualising data is a team sport
Gemma Gatticchi
Mar 2, 2023
They built a corruption scandal tracker for Kenya. Here’s what it took
They built a corruption scandal tracker for Kenya. Here’s what it took
Last year, Africa Uncensored and Odipo Dev launched Wizileaks. It was a mammoth project which now has a browser extension and card game.
Tegan Bedser
Feb 23, 2023
How a Swahili-language data journalism group created a sustainable business model
How a Swahili-language data journalism group created a sustainable business model
When Nukta Africa launched in 2018 the founders quickly realised that just running “stuff about data” wasn’t going to pay the bills.
Gemma Ritchie
Feb 16, 2023
How to make a Nigerian election map — a simple guide
How to make a Nigerian election map — a simple guide
With the Nigeria general elections taking place on 25 February, here’s a guide to show you how to make your own elections map.
Tegan Bedser
Feb 9, 2023
Extract data on any website in four easy steps using Instant Data Scraper
Extract data on any website in four easy steps using Instant Data Scraper
The automated data extraction tool makes it super simple to scape website data and take it into a clean spreadsheet.
Mamaili Mamaila
Feb 6, 2023
Five (more) simple spreadsheet functions every journalist needs to know
Five (more) simple spreadsheet functions every journalist needs to know
In October we gave you five basic spreadsheet functions that you need to know to be Google Sheets literate. Here’s part two!
Gemma Gatticchi
Dec 8, 2022
Talking African football data with Laduma Analytics
Talking African football data with Laduma Analytics
Alex Rathke and Lee Moyo launched Laduma Analytics in 2018, after years of blogging about South African football.
Mamaili Mamaila
Dec 1, 2022
How to use InVID to pull together tweets using a hashtag and a specific time period
How to use InVID to pull together tweets using a hashtag and a specific time period
The InVID project is a powerful tool that can help figure out a timeline of events after they happened.
Gemma Ritchie
Nov 17, 2022
Digging data at the 2022 African Investigative Journalism Conference
Digging data at the 2022 African Investigative Journalism Conference
What do journalists think about data? We spoke to some attendees of the African Investigative Journalism Conference to find out.
Gemma Gatticchi
Nov 10, 2022
Talking sports data journalism with ESPN’s Paula Lavigne
Talking sports data journalism with ESPN’s Paula Lavigne
Lavigne has reported on everything from sexual assault in college sports to fan food. Here’s how — and why — she uses data in her…
Mamaili Mamaila
Nov 7, 2022
Five essential — and super simple — spreadsheet formulas every journalist needs to know
Five essential — and super simple — spreadsheet formulas every journalist needs to know
Learning these five basic formulas will start you on your way to spreadsheet bliss.
Gemma Gatticchi
Oct 27, 2022
How to follow the data pipeline: From finding the data to publishing your story.
How to follow the data pipeline: From finding the data to publishing your story.
Where does a data story begin? We’ll share with you how you can create your own.
Tegan Bedser
Oct 21, 2022
Talking data journalism with Goodman Lepota
Talking data journalism with Goodman Lepota
Goodman Lepota has loved telling stories with data since he was a teenager. In May 2022, he launched his own publication doing just that.
Gemma Ritchie
Oct 13, 2022
Making bar charts with Datawrapper
Making bar charts with Datawrapper
Datawrapper is a one-stop solution for all things maps, charts and tables. Here’s our simple bar chart cheatsheet.
Gemma Gatticchi
Oct 7, 2022
How and why we overhauled our workflow with static data visualisations
How and why we overhauled our workflow with static data visualisations
In March 2022 we switched from making interactive data visualisations to focusing on static charts with tight constraints.
Alastair Otter
Sep 29, 2022
Finding, tracking and organising datasets isn’t as difficult as you might think. Here’s our guide.
Finding, tracking and organising datasets isn’t as difficult as you might think. Here’s our guide.
Data isn’t always available in a clean dataset waiting to be analysed and visualised. Sometimes there isn’t any data to begin with.
Gemma Ritchie
Sep 22, 2022
Colour me correct: Tools for improving diversity in data journalism
Colour me correct: Tools for improving diversity in data journalism
One of the first things we tell our trainees about data storytelling is that it is not about numbers — it is about people.
Tegan Bedser
Sep 15, 2022
Talking data journalism in Africa with Athandiwe Saba
Talking data journalism in Africa with Athandiwe Saba
Athandiwe Saba fell so hard for data journalism that when her media outlet didn’t have a data department, she started one herself.
Tanya Pampalone
Sep 10, 2022
Five reasons Google Sheets is better than Microsoft Excel
Five reasons Google Sheets is better than Microsoft Excel
Free. More collaboration features. Live chat. History function. Multiple device access. Any questions?
Gemma Gatticchi
Sep 1, 2022
Our data-driven journalism publication launched a year ago. Here’s what we’ve learned so far
Our data-driven journalism publication launched a year ago. Here’s what we’ve learned so far
It’s been a year since we launched our data-driven journalism publication, The Outlier, and we’ve just published our 100th chart. Here’s…
Laura Grant
Aug 25, 2022
Don’t be afraid. It’s only data journalism. And — wait for it — it is pretty easy and kinda fun.
Don’t be afraid. It’s only data journalism. And — wait for it — it is pretty easy and kinda fun.
We talked to journalists who recently trained with Media Hack Collective. Here’s what they told us.
Tegan Bedser
Aug 18, 2022
How to make a Kenyan election map — a simple guide
How to make a Kenyan election map — a simple guide
Here’s how to make your own customised election map.
Alastair Otter
Aug 1, 2022
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