A curated collection of data journalism blogs, Al Jazeera America employees’ next steps and more in this week's Digital Media Mash Up, produced by the Center for International Media Assistance.
Improve your data literacy: 16 blogs to follow in 2016
Data literacy is a never-ending process. Going to workshops and hands-on practice are important, but to really become acquainted with the “culture” of data literacy, you’ll have to do a lot of reading. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back: below is a curated list of 16 blogs to follow in 2016 if you want to: improve your data-visualization skills; see the best examples of data journalism; discover the methodology behind the best data-driven projects; and pick-up some essential tips for working with data. (Global Investigative Journalism Network, 2/1)
Al Jazeera America journalists built a site to help co-workers find their next job
Shortly after news dropped that Al Jazeera America was shutting down, journalists on its digital team started a side project. “The Best of Al Jazeera America Digital” showcases the work of journalists there who will soon be unemployed.
The site, which is hosted independently, is at least the third high-profile example of journalists helping each other find work after their shops shut down. Journalists at Digital First Media's Project Thunderdome created a site and hosted events to help employees find their next jobs. Last April, I wrote about how most Thunderdome journalists had moved on a year later. When Circa closed, Anthony De Rosa also stumped for the journalists there. (Poynter, 2/1)
Semantic tagging tool to benefit digital journalism
Researchers from the EU-funded Media in Context (MICO) project have published highly promising results. These will help independent news organizations in extending their publishing workflows with cross-media analysis and linked data querying tools.
The project primarily worked with two partners, Greenpeace Italy and Shoof (a startup developing an Android app for user-generated content). It focused on organizing the news desk of small and medium editorial teams by creating a flexible network of metadata around both text and media. (Eurasia Review, 1/30)
App for journalists: Lrn, for learning to code
Coding, or at least a basic understanding of programming, is becoming an increasingly important skill for journalists to have in the newsroom.
Many editorial teams now work closely together with developers to create interactive storytelling experiences and new formats, so knowing what is possible and in what time frame makes communicating easier and collaborations more productive. (Journalism.co.uk, 1/20)
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Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via Rosa Menkman.
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