This is a collection of computational and data journalism courses for which there is a publicly available homepage or syllabus suitable for others to use as a reference, i.e. basically anything that shows up in a Google search for syllabus
+ computational
/data
/research
+ journalism
/ computer assisted reporting
.
This list includes courses from as early as 1997 and several taught in countries not in North America. I started compiling this list before teaching at Stanford in 2014. In June 2016, I uploaded it here and made a few updates, but it's not complete or consistent by any means. It includes a few not-really computational/journalism courses, which I may trim later, and misses anything not found via Google or from the top of my head. As I have time, I try to serialize various aspects of each course (see some-syllabi.yaml for all the data fields), such as which textbooks are used and what specific skills are taught.
A simplified HTML rendering of some-syllabi.yaml is at the end of this README; I'll make it a Jekyll site later.
For investigative journalism syllabi, the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium maintains a list here: http://ijec.org/syllabi/
Investigative Reporters & Editors also maintains a collection: https://ire.org/resource-center/educators-center/syllabi/
Also relevant: This report by Charles Berret (Columbia University) and Cheryl Phillips (Stanford University): Teaching Data and Computational Journalism
Feel free to add suggestions in the issues.
The following table is auto-generated from running scripts/produce_courselist.py, which reads from some-syllabi.yaml and prints things exactly in the order as I entered them in (i.e. with no real order at all -- will export to a proper Github Pages/Jekyll thing later):
There are currently 199 courses listed; see some-syllabi.yaml for more data fields.
Course | Organization |
---|---|
Exploring Computation Journalism | 2017; Winter | Stanford University |
Python for Data Journalists: Analyzing Money in Politics | 2017; June 12 - July 9 | Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas |
Digital data journalism: Finding, analyzing and presenting structured information on the internet as part of your journalistic work. Instructors: David Eads | Northwestern University (Washington D.C. campus) |
Online data journalism: Finding, analyzing and presenting structured information on the Internet as part of your journalistic work. Instructors: David Eads | Northwestern University (Washington D.C. campus) |
Web Development for Media | 2015; Fall | |
From numeracy to visualization and beyond | Journalist's Resource |
Visualizing Data | 2016; Spring | New School |
Intro to Data Journalism | 2016 | New York University |
Storytelling with Data + Interactivity | 2015; Fall | City University of New York |
There are more charts, maps, and interactives on news sites than ever before. But data-driven news stories and graphics have been moving readers, impacting communities, and changing lives for hundreds of years. According to the un... Instructors: Andrew Ba Tran | Central Connecticut State University |
Data Journalism | 2016; Fall | USC Annenberg |
Computers and the Open Society | Stanford University |
In this hands-on course, students will learn practical computer-assisted reporting and data visualization techniques and tools used by data reporters and interactive designers at leading news organizations. By the end of the semes... Instructors: Jillian Bauer | |
This course adds server-side (back-end) Web skills to the client-side (front-end) Web skills students have developed in the preceding course, with the goal of developing Web apps that include a server-side component to support pre... Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
Introduction to Web Apps | 2017; Fall | University of Florida |
This is not a course where you “learn to make websites.” (Making websites is so 2005.) It is a course in which you will learn to code, and by “code” I mean write functional programs that run in a Web browser — not just make Web pa... Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
Data Journalism | 2016; Spring | University of Texas at Arlington |
Intro to News Apps | 2016; Spring | University of Missouri |
Advanced Interactive Data Visualization | 2015; Spring | University of Missouri |
Data Journalism Handbook | Open Data in Europe and Central Asia |
Data Exploration and Storytelling: Finding Stories in Data with Exploratory Analysis and Visualization | 2017; January 16 - February 26 | Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas |
Policy and Investigative Reporting | 2016; Spring | University of California at Santa Cruz |
Introduction to Data Journalism | 2016; Fall | University of California at Berkeley |
Introduction to Data Visualization | 2016; Fall | University of California at Berkeley |
Every day, more of our lives is being stored in a database somewhere. With that explosion of data, journalists now more than ever need the skills to analyze and understand data to then produce the stories hidden in the information... Instructors: Matt Waite | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Technologies de l'information appliquées au journalisme | 2016; Fall | Université du Québec à Montréal |
Interactive Data Journalism | 2016 | Source OpenNews |
Over 10 days, we'll cover the basics of brainstorming, reporting, designing and building interactive graphics and data-driven news applications. By the end of the course you should be able to: | ProPublica |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2001 | University of Missouri |
Code4SA Data Journalism School | 2016; Spring | School of Data |
Big Data Seminar | 2016; Spring | Florida State University |
Data and Multimedia Journalism | 2016 | Birmingham City University |
This course teaches you skills to find, analyze, and create narratives with data following an established process used by data journalists. It will also teach you how to critically evaluate public interest stories or reports that ... Instructors: Eva Constantaras @evaconstantaras | Sudan Evidence Base Programme |
This course introduces you to the theory and methods of information gathering and gives you the opportunity to apply what you're learning to an important public policy question. Instructors: Jim Upshaw | University of Oregon |
Investigative Reporting Techniques | 2016; Spring | Florida International University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2009; Spring | American University |
Digital Scholarship Methods | 2014; Winter | University of Oregon |
What exactly is data and how does it fit into journalism? How can journalists work with data to find, report and visualize stories? That’s what we’ll explore in this course. (It doesn’t sound fun, but it will be.) We will learn to... Instructors: Chip Brantley | University of Alabama |
Data Analysis for Journalists | 2015; Fall | Indiana University |
Digital History: Concepts, Methods, Problems | 2014; Fall | Stanford University |
Intro to Digital Humanities | 2012 | University of California Los Angeles |
News & Numbers: Lies, Statistics, and the Stories Media Tell | 2009; Spring | Miami (Ohio) University |
GeoData Journalism | 2016; Spring | George Mason University |
This is a introductory level course designed for students in all areas of journalism, where you will learn how to find, examine and visually display data in the forms of maps, charts, diagrams and illustrations for a sophisticated... Instructors: Josh Meltzer @joshmeltzer | Western Kentucky University |
Web Programming for Multimedia Journalism | 2014; Fall | Kent State University |
We will explore how to use the computer and the internet to add depth and context to news stories. Keep in mind, however, that these are just tools – they supplement, but do not replace, in-depth, aggressive reporting. We will con... Instructors: Ron Bishop | Drexel University |
Managing Data Journalism Projects | Learno.net |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2006; Spring | Columbia College Chicago |
How to Process, Analyze and Visualize Data | 2012 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
The volume of data being generated every day continues to grow exponentially. We capture and store data about pretty much every aspect of our lives. Being able to handle and analyze the available data is now a fundamental skill fo... Instructors: Panos Ipeirotis | New York University |
This course introduces concepts, methods and practices of data visualization and data storytelling for journalism majors. Data journalism is an emerging field of practice that ranges from the dazzling interactive graphics of the N... Instructors: Catherine D'Ignazio | Emerson College |
Data Skills | 2015; Spring | City University of New York |
Data Visualization | 2015; Spring | University of Texas at Austin |
Data Journalism: The Basics | 2015; Fall | Kardi Has University |
Patricia Elliott | 2013; Fall | University of Regina |
Advanced Reporting | 2008; Spring | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Programming R (Proposed) | 2013; Fall | |
This course will teach you to be a data analyst. You will learn how to take a large dataset break up into manageable pieces and use a range of qualitative and quantitative tools to summarise it and learn what it has to tell. You w... Instructors: Hadley Wickham | Rice University |
This course will give you the tools to create and critically evaluate data visualisations. We will focus on statistical graphics, graphics that display statistical data (observations are in rows and variables in columns), with som... Instructors: Hadley Wickham | Rice University |
This course adds server-side (back-end) skills to the client-side (front-end) skills you’ve already developed. This means you can save information generated from a Web page (you can require users to log in, for example), and you c... Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
This course has two broad goals: 1. Enable journalism students to find out if they like and/or have an aptitude for creating Web apps and coding/programming. 2. Provide journalism students with sufficient understanding of how Web... Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
Instructors: Hanspeter Pfister | Harvard University |
The amount and complexity of information produced in science, engineering, business, and everyday human activity is increasing at staggering rates. The goal of this course is to expose you to visual representation methods and tech... Instructors: Alexander Lex | Harvard University |
Data Visualization | 2016; Spring | University of Washington |
We are swimming in data - "Big" and small, global and personal. And we are also facing complicated problems like Climate Change and inequality whose stories can only be told with data. The need for public understanding of data-dri... Instructors: Rahul Bhargava | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Research, Analysis and Insight | 2013; Spring | University of Southern California |
Advanced Journalism Research | 2000; Fall | Boston University |
Advanced Journalism Research | 2001; Spring | Boston University |
Data Journalism | 2015; Spring | Temple University |
Journalism Research | 2015 Spring | Temple University |
Data 1 | 2015; Fall | Columbia University |
Math for Journalists Made Easy: Understanding and Using Numbers and Statistics | 2015; June | Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas |
The course is designed to promote learning through working in interdisciplinary teams (journalism and geology) along with a nonprofit news organization, inewsource to examine air quality in San Diego using electronic, cutting-edge... Instructors: Schmitz Weiss, Kevin Robinson | San Diego State University |
Storytelling with Data + Interactivity | 2014; Fall | City University of New York |
Institute for Analytic Journalism (Proposal) | 2001 | |
In that independent study, for one credit hour, I was to create a Computer-Assisted Reporting class. The proposal I had to write said I would create a syllabus, recommend texts and create class materials. In the proposal, I wrote... Instructors: Matt Waite | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Computational Social Science | 2015; Fall | Stanford University |
Law, Order & Algorithms | 2016; Winter | Stanford University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2008; Summer | Ramkhamhaeng University |
Instructors: Christopher Harper | Temple University |
Investigative Reporting Techniques | 2010; Spring | University of California at Los Angeles, Extension |
Computational Journalism | 2014; Fall | New York University |
The course is a hands-on introduction to the areas of computer science that have a direct relevance to journalism, and the broader project of producing an informed and engaged public. We will touch on many different technical and ... Instructors: Jonathan Stray | Columbia University |
Applied Fact Finding | 2012; Spring | University of Florida |
Applied Fact Finding | 2016; Spring | University of Florida |
Applied Fact Finding | 2015; Summer | University of Florida |
Applied Fact Finding | 2013; Fall | University of Florida |
Database & Public Records Reporting | 2006; Summer | Florida International University |
The dual emphasis of the course is to have students acquire the basic skills and practical knowledge of how to access information in order to support their reporting practices, as well as, a basic understanding of data managers a... Instructors: Carlos Suris | Florida International University |
Advanced Reporting | 2000; Winter | DePaul University |
Computer Assisted Reporting | 1997; Spring | New York University |
This is a skills class. I will be teaching you why web scraping is one of the most important tools available to journalists, but in only five weeks, I will primarily be teaching you the technical skill of how to scrape data from a... Instructors: Sisi Wei | City University of New York |
Design & Presentation | 2015; Fall | City University of New York |
Research Methods for Journalists | 1998; Spring | Northwestern University |
Data-Driven Reporting | 2015; Fall | University of Texas at Austin |
News Gathering and Investigation | 2015; Fall | University of Texas at El Paso |
Data Journalism and Visualization | 2015; Summer | Xiamen University |
In our Data Journalism and Visualization course, you will learn how to use the Internet and other digital technology to find ideas, information and sources for your stories. In particular, you will learn how to obtain and analyze ... Instructors: Jeff South | Northeast Normal University |
Craft of Research | 2014; Fall | City University of New York |
This course is designed to provide the student with an introduction to the sources, practices, technique and principles of journalism and other information research. The course introduces students to the techniques of computer-ass... Instructors: Sue Ellen Christian | Western Michigan University |
This course will help to strengthen your reporting skills, teach you how to find, negotiate for and acquire public records data, how to query and analyze data, how to use online resources beyond Google to identify and retrieve inf... Instructors: Jane Briggs-Bunting | Michigan State University |
Stabile Seminar: The empirical spine of investigative reporting | 2014; Spring | Columbia University |
Quantitative Journalism: Computer-Assisted Reporting and Research | 2009; Fall | Augsburg College |
Quantitative Journalism: Computer-Assisted Reporting and Research | 2010; Fall | Augsburg College |
Computer Assisted Reporting | 2015; Spring | Point Loma Nazarene University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2012; Fall | Eastern Illinois University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2011; Spring | Eastern Illinois University |
The aim of this class is to teach students how to identify, obtain, analyze and incorporate data into their stories. In practical terms, this means learning to use spreadsheets, databases and the Internet to further reporting. Alo... Instructors: Derek Willis | George Washington University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2007; Spring | Kent State University |
Data Journalism | 2016; Spring | New York University |
Computer Assisted Reporting | 2016; Spring | Texas Southern University |
Advanced Online Media Design | Texas State University |
Data-driven Reporting (the Texas Tribune Course) | 2012; Fall | University of Texas at Austin |
Data Journalism in Enterprise Reporting | 2016; Spring | Ohio State University |
Data Visualization and Infographics with D3.js | 2015; March 16 - April 26 | Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas |
Big Data and Global Media | 2016 | Yale University |
Data Driven Journalism | 2015; Maymester | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Data Driven Journalism | 2016; Spring | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Instructors: Jacob Eisenstein | Georgia Tech |
Computational Journalism | 2015; Spring | Stanford University |
Computational Methods in the Civic Sphere | 2016; Winter | Stanford University |
Computational Methods in the Civic Sphere | 2015; Winter | Stanford University |
Public Affairs Data Journalism II | 2016; Winter | Stanford University |
Public Affairs Data Journalism II | 2015; Winter | Stanford University |
Public Affairs Data Journalism I | 2015; Fall | Stanford University |
Public Affairs Data Journalism I | 2014; Fall | Stanford University |
In this course, you’ll be introduced to programming and data concepts relevant to communicators. Data visualization and storytelling tools and techniques are covered as related to journalism, advertising, public relations and the ... Instructors: Cindy Royal | Texas State University |
Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
Instructors: Mindy McAdams | University of Florida |
Interactives and news apps are changing the way we process media, and the expectations for media producers in newsrooms globally. Data journalism departments and newsrooms like Vox, the NYTimes, ProPublica, and 538 build narrative... Instructors: Aurelia Moser | The New School |
This senior-level course will introduce students to all phases of data journalism, including: finding and evaluating data sources, organizing data, reporting with numbers, and visualizing data. During the course we will discuss co... Instructors: Nick Geidner | University of Tennessee |
Data Journalism | Virginia Commonwealth University |
Intro to Multimedia Web Skills | 2014 | University of California at Berkeley |
Advanced Coding for Journalists | 2015 | University of California at Berkeley |
Advanced Data Journalism | 2015; Winter | University of California at Berkeley |
Computational Journalism | 2016; Spring | University of Maryland |
Computer Assisted Reporting | 2015; Fall | Carleton University |
Reporting Methods | 2014; Winter | Carleton University |
Reporting Methods | 2016; Winter | Carleton University |
Data Journalism | 2015; Fall | National University of Ireland Galway |
Data Journalism | 2014; Fall | University of Florida |
Data Journalism | 2016; Spring | University of Florida |
West Virginia Election Reporting | 2014; Fall | West Virginia University |
This course will teach students how to use data and technology to craft a systematic approach to beat reporting, or to build what you could call a reporter’s exoskeleton. Such a system would make it easier for a journalist to plac... Instructors: Derek Willis | University of Maryland |
What is information visualization? How is it related to scientific visualization? How does it combine with data mining? Information visualization is emerging as an important fusion of graphics, scientific visualization, database, ... Instructors: Ben Shneiderman | University of Maryland |
Storytelling with Data Visualization | 2015; Fall | University of Maryland |
Computation + Journalism | 2010; Spring | Georgia Tech |
Computation + Journalism | 2012; Spring | Georgia Tech |
Instructors: Irfan Essa | Georgia Tech |
A study of computational and technological advancements in journalism with emphasis on technologies for developing new tools and their potential impact on news and information. Technology is rapidly affecting how news information ... Instructors: Irfan Essa | Georgia Tech |
A study of computational and technological advancements in journalism with emphasis on technologies for developing new tools and their potential impact on news and information. Instructors: Irfan Essa | Georgia Tech |
Precision Journalism | 1999; Fall | University of Colorado |
Coding for Journalists | 2013; Fall | University of California at Berkeley |
Data Science Storytelling | 2013; Fall | New York University |
Advanced Data Journalism | 2013; Spring | University of Missouri |
Advanced Data Journalism | 2014; Spring | University of Missouri |
Advanced Data Journalism | 2015; Spring | University of Missouri |
Advanced Data Journalism | 2015; Fall | University of Missouri |
Advanced Data Journalism | University of Missouri |
The world that we live in and report on is increasingly influenced by data. This course will help you use data to find and develop stories that can’t be found in other ways. Data can be anything: spreadsheets full of numbers, the ... Instructors: Derek Willis | Georgetown University |
The objective of this course is to familiarize students with digital tools that will become the frameworks with which they can approach storytelling, emphasizing the use of structured data and the visualization of data to aid in t... Instructors: Derek Willis | University of Northwestern |
Database Reporting | 2012; Spring | University of Minnesota |
Digital Journalism | 2014; Winter | Stanford University |
Computer-Assisted Journalism | 2003; Fall | Oklahoma State University |
Power Journalism | 2006; Spring | University of Oregon |
This is largely a skills course with a heavy hands-on component. By successfully completing this course, you will be able to identify, obtain, evaluate, clean, analyze and visualize data. You will be expected to think like a journ... Instructors: David Herzog | University of Missouri |
Data Journalism at SHERP | New York University |
Sherp 31 Data Journalism | New York University |
Data Journalism | 2014; Spring | New York University |
Data Journalism | 2014; Fall | New York University |
Data Journalism | 2015; Spring | New York University |
Data-driven Interactive Journalism | 2013; Spring | City University of New York |
Data-driven Interactive Journalism | 2013; Fall | City University of New York |
Instructors: Rachel Schutt | Columbia University |
Introduction to Data Science | 2013; Fall | Columbia University |
Investigative Reporting | 2011; Fall | University of Missouri |
Precision Journalism | 2006; Fall | University of South Carolina |
Frontiers of Computational Journalism | 2012 | Columbia University |
This course, given at the University of Hong Kong during January-February 2013, is an advanced look at how techniques from visualization, natural language processing, social network analysis, statistics, and cryptography apply to ... Instructors: Jonathan Stray | University of Hong Kong |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2012; Spring | University of Memphis |
Interactive Design | 2014; Spring | Columbia University |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2010; Spring | Georgetown University |
Doing Journalism with Data: First Steps, Skills and Tools | 2014; May 6 - June 6 | European Journalism Centre |
Data-based journalism is increasingly important at all levels of news organizations. This course will introduce you to fundamental concepts and skills for gathering, analyzing, and visualizing data. It’s also a hands-on class; you... Instructors: Jeremy Singer-Vine | New York University SCPS |
Data Visualization | 2013; Fall | University of California at Berkeley |
Computer-Assisted Reporting | 2012; Fall | University of Maryland |
Data Driven Journalism | 2013; Spring | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
This course aims to examine data journalism at its core, through case studies and hands-on practice of modern data skills. Because the course is only five weeks, we focus on the practical concepts and tools needed to explore unfam... Instructors: Dan Nguyen | New York University SCPS |
The Platform | 2014; Summer | Columbia University |
Algorithms | 2014; Summer | Columbia University |
Data and Databases | 2015; Summer | Columbia University |
Data and Databases | 2014; Summer | Columbia University |
Foundations of Computing | 2014; Summer | Columbia University |
Making Sense of Data | 2013; Winter | |
Math for Beginning Reporters | 2014 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
The best reporters harness the right tools to get the story. In this class, we’ll use brainpower and software to look at raw data -- not summarized and already reported information -- to do investigative reporting. We’re going to ... Instructors: Matt Waite | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
News Applications | 2014; Spring | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Story Bots | 2014; Fall | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |
Data Visualization | 2013; Fall | University of Nebraska-Lincoln |