The Global Editors Network runs the Data Journalism Awards competition each year to celebrate outstanding work in the field of data journalism worldwide.
Last year, 573 projects, coming from over 50 countries, representing the five continents, were submitted. For the 2018 competition, the competition is set to be even more global, and teams from around the world are encouraged to take part and apply directly on the Data Journalism Awards website.
Supported by the Google News Lab, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and in partnership with Chartbeat, the 2018 competition hopes to reach even further, continue to get applications from the Americas and Europe, but also get more entries from Asia, Africa, and emerging countries.
If your organisation has been doing some amazing data-driven work in the past year, we’d love you to take part in the Data Journalism Awards. All teams, big or small, are eligible, and you can submit as many projects as you want.
This year we’ve made it easier to apply, so pick the best projects you’ve worked on in the past year, and fill in this form. All work must have been published or aired between 10 April 2017 and 26 March 2018.
The finalists shortlisted for awards will be announced in April 2018 at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia (Italy), and the winning projects will be revealed at the 2018 ceremony and gala dinner in Lisbon on 31 May 2018, during the GEN Summit 2018.
Check out previous winners!
Wondering whether your project could make it to the top? Curious to see who has won the competition in the past? We’ve compiled the list of winners from the four last editions.
Rutas de Conflicto, 2017 winner in the Data journalism website of the year category (Colombia).
The Globe and Mail, 2017 winner in the Investigation of the year category with ‘Unfounded’ (Canada).
Berlingske, 2016 winner in the Open data category with “#Tracked”.
Over $21,500 for grabs, across 12 categories!
Prizes for the 2018 competition are worth $1801 each, and will be awarded at a ceremony and gala dinner in Lisbon on 31 May 2018 during the GEN Summit 2018.
The categories this year are:
Best data journalism team
Best individual portfolio
Chartbeat award for the best use of data in a breaking news story, within first 36 hours
Data journalism website of the year
Data visualisation of the year
Innovation in data journalism
Investigation of the year
News data app of the year
Open data award
Public choice
Small newsrooms
Student and young data journalist of the year
You can also find all the information about this year’s awards (including key dates, list of jury members, categories and rules) on the Data Journalism Awards website.
We asked our jury members what they look for in potential winners, here is what they said:
‘I’d say the things I look for are:
- Impact
- Transparency — and how open the data is
- Innovation
- Storytelling’
- Simon Rogers, Google News Lab (US)
‘I love to have the opportunity to review Data Journalism Awards applications to learn from their findings but what I love most of all is the “making of”, because this is how we can really replicate experiences. I love to learn about projects that reuse code, that apply technologies to structure the unstructured to keep governments accountable, and those that empowers users participation, as well as networks collaborating around the same project or dataset.’ Angelica Peralta Ramos, La Nacion (Argentina)
‘Importance of theme, originality of technique and data sources; innovation around statistical analysis and visualization. Spotting insights that would not be apparent in prose-based journalism.’ Kenneth Cukier, The Economist (UK)
‘I pay more and more attention to design, to usability. Can that one piece of data journalism appeal to a wide range of users/audience. We know how short digital attention spans are. The really good entries hook their audience and keep them lingering (and sharing).’ Esra Dogramaci, DW (Germany)
‘I obviously tend to focus on the visuals and try to think whether each story belongs to either of these mental categories: either (a) very straightforward graphs and maps, elegantly designed, and that tell the story deeply and clearly or (b) very creative and innovative uses of animation, interaction, visual encodings, etc. Either is fine, but the choice needs to be made based on the nature of the story.’ Alberto Cairo, University of Miami (US)
‘The design, the meaningfulness of data, the source, the analysis, the storytelling as a whole.’ Mariana Santos, Chicas Poderosas (Portugal)
Learn more online or follow Global Editor's Network on Twitter.
Marianne Bouchart is the Program Manager for the Data Journalism Awards. You can reach her at mbouchart@globaleditorsnetwork.org.
Main image CC-licensed by pexels.com via Startup Stock Photos.