Teaching Data Journalism: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Data Journalism has attracted considerable academic attention as an innovative journalism practice in the recent past. It has resulted in a steady increase in academic research on data journalism. A subset of these studies deals with imparting training in data journalism. This study attempts to systematically review the peer-reviewed academic literature on data journalism training in order to ascertain the present status of academic research on the subject. By examining the studies, it brings together insights about the prevalent methods used in data journalism training, the challenges faced by the instructors, the recommended best practices and the students’ perception about data journalism training. The study finds that accommodating a new programme in the existing tight schedule of journalism curricula, alleviating the math-fear in students and adequately addressing the interdisciplinary nature of the practice through consistent up-skilling are some of the challenges faced by data journalism educators. It also finds that the academic literature on data journalism training is less concerned about imparting ethical awareness related to the practice.