#1 First Draft
[This is first draft of a “Data Journalism Manifesto”. We will try to close it and present it at the International Journalism Festival, during a panel organized by Anne-Lise Bouyer, Daniele Grasso, Sylke Gruhnwald and Jacopo Ottaviani.
The draft has been prepared after questioning a small group of journalists* from different European countries. It is still open to your comments, so feel free to add them.]
INTRO
Data journalism exists in newsrooms; many agencies are specialized in it; professors teach it. Data journalism has contributed to major investigations at least in the last 5 years. It’s now an essential part of journalism, and not only for the nerdy unicorns.
In promoting openness and transparency, data journalism not only reinforces the role of journalism as the fourth estate. It has the potential to increase the trust of the broad public in journalism.
We strongly believe that data journalism should be more accessible and considered above all as journalism, we delineate here what makes data journalism data journalism.
WHY A MANIFESTO
We believe that measuring change, and thereby tracking progress, should not be left only to the rich and powerful. Data journalism provides a much needed counterweight. Data journalism allows measuring reality and transmit the results the public opinion through the production of stories and investigations.
We also believe in working collaboratively and across countries between multiple teams and media outlets. Having a European data journalism manifesto will help us work together by setting guidelines, fostering good practices and list our common values.
This manifesto is a first step in defining and measuring the quality of data journalism projects and laying the foundations of a European data journalism framework.
WHY EUROPEAN
‘United in diversity’ is the official motto of the European Union. The motto means that Europeans are united in working together for peace and prosperity, and that the many different cultures, traditions and languages in Europe are a positive asset for the continent. European data journalists can join forces to foster the European spirit and help move towards this direction.
In practical terms a multilingual network of data journalists who cooperate in English will be able to overcome linguistic barriers and create bridges among audiences. Such collaboration is crucial to counteract propaganda and serve the European public on the realities of an increasingly more divided Europe. Data, due to its machine-readable structure, is particularly good to build bridges between journalists and newsrooms across the continent. We can share methodologies, datasets, research and visualisations with relatively small effort. We can also refine and combine fragmented, multilingual datasets and join them into European datasets and write stories for both national (in local languages) and European audiences (in English).
European ddj manifesto
Definition
/ Data journalism makes use of data for the journalistic purpose of finding and telling true stories in the public interest. This may result in many forms: analyze the data and convey this analysis in written form or in a visualization, collect the data to create a database or build apps that help users to explore the data themselves.
Data is always human
/ Data journalists use their judgment to choose what to collect and how to collect or analyze it. Data journalists always keep in mind that data is the result of a process set up by humans and therefore requires the check and balances of news gathering. They understand and explain the technical and sociological biases inherent to any data set.
Privacy
/ Private information can only be published if its relevance to the public interest overweighs the private interests. When it is not the case, the data should be anonymized or aggregated in order to respect statistical secrecy whenever possible. The identities of surveyed sources at risk of being harmed for performing human rights-driven work or for revealing related abuses will be protected, including in court.
Methodology
/ The methodology and the sources used to collect and process data must be clear and public.
The possible biases and the margin of errors should be understood by the data journalists and when it’s possible, published alongside the methodology.
Maintainability
/ Data should be stored in an a format that allows and simplifies future uses. Only so can the data be continually maintained and improved.
Reproducibility
/ The data should be structured in a way that lets it be reused in a different context if it doesn’t distort its meaning, especially to reproduce an analysis.
Openness
/ The code and the data should be open, meaning that it can be easily downloaded and processed. Open does not mean public domain, and data journalists can choose any license for their creation. Special allowances will be made to protect identities of vulnerable sources who work in dangerous places promoting human rights.
Collaboration
/ Collaboration stands at the core of data journalism. It is between journalists and coders, but also journalists and other journalists. Sharing data, code or information helps improving the quality and the strength of the work and optimise the resources and share the costs needed to produce it.
*We received answers from: Alexandre Léchenet (France), Cécile Schilis-Gallego (France), Jens Finnäs (Sweden), Anuška Delić (Slovenia), Nicolas Kayser-Bril (Germany), Markus Hametner (Austria), Marian Männi (Estonia), Christina Elmer (Germany), Gavin Sheridan (Ireland), Maaike Goslinga (The Netherlands), Crina Boros (Romania), Paula Guisado (Spain), Mehdi Atmani (Switzerland)
