ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom focused on keeping figures of authority honest, has put over 100 journalists through its Data Institute, which former students say has been instrumental in their career paths.
The two-week workshop teaches journalists skills in data, coding, and design which are then implemented in their newsrooms. Success stories include stocks reporters, education correspondents, politics editors, community journalism advocates and more. Some highlights below:
Laura Moscoso, who works as a reporter for the Center for Investigative Journalism in Puerto Rico. Since January, she’s been working on a project that follows the money around the reconstruction of PR after Hurricane Maria.
“The institute has helped me enormously, and I apply most of what I learned in my day-to-day work. I think the biggest takeaway for me was not being afraid to dig into code even if I’m not ‘fluent’ in it.”
April Joyner, a markets correspondent at Reuters covering US stocks, also participated in the Data Institute and said her training has been instrumental to her job.
“The Excel and data skills I learned at the Data Institute have come in handy as a business reporter. It gave me strategies to find story ideas and to ensure that the data I have really does support the story I’m pursuing.”
