Miguel Paz leads data skills training at Montclair State University
PLUS: Resources and reference guides for local data journalists
Renowned data journalist and Poderopedia founder Miguel Paz made his way across the Hudson to Montclair State University on Friday to lead a data journalism workshop for a group of New Jersey journalists.
Paz is a Chilean journalist and the founder and CEO of Poderopedia, a data journalism website created through a 2011 Knight News Challenge grant to reveal the links among political and business elites. He’s also the president of the Poderomedia Foundation, a co-creator of Hacks/Hackers Chile, and a professor of data journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
The workshop began with an overview of the fundamentals of working with data, including an explanation of what data is, how it can be used, and how to read it. From there, Paz used sample datasets to work through the various functions of Excel and Sheets and explain how they can be used to find and tell stories that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
I could spend the next few pages recapping the entire data skills training minute-by-minute, but I won’t — no matter how exciting that may sound. Instead, I’ll leave you with this list of useful tutorials, resources, and reference guides, curated by Professor Paz himself:
- About your instructor: Miguel Paz
- Handout: Checklist for working with data and avoiding mistakes
- Handout: Most common data formats and concepts
- Data Story Templates: What’s your data driven story/project about?
- Recommended reading: A growing list of recommended books on data and journalism
The documents and links above are incredibly helpful for the data journalism beginner, especially if you already have some understanding of Excel or Sheets.
Our next training will take place on June 6, 2017 with S.P Sullivan of NJ Advance Media. Sullivan is a statehouse reporter for NJ Advance Media, where he covers criminal justice issues and the state Attorney General’s Office for NJ.com and The Star-Ledger. Sean specializes in finding under-covered stories in court records, public documents hidden in plain view and, occasionally, leaked internal memos.
If you’re interested in learning more about upcoming trainings and events hosted by the Center for Cooperative Media, visit our website at centerforcooperativemedia.org or click here to sign up for our daily newsletter.
Joe Amditis is the associate director of the Center for Cooperative Media. Contact him at amditisj@mail.montclair.edu.
About the Center for Cooperative Media: The Center is a grant-funded program of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. The Center is supported with funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Democracy Fund. Its mission is to grow and strengthen local journalism, and in doing so serve New Jersey residents. For more information, visit CenterforCooperativeMedia.org.
