In their new article Mary Lynn Young, of University of British Columbia, Alfred Hermida, of University of British Columbia, and Johanna Fulda examine the quality of Canadian finalists and winners in major national and international awards for data journalism between 2012 and 2015. The main research question is how journalists executed what could be considered Canada’s best data journalism.

The study shows that there is not consensus on what is considered as excellence in data journalism awards submissions. Free software and limited resources are shaping representations of data journalism. Most of the projects also relied on readily accessible sources of data.

Journalistic output appears to be shaped less by what could be considered the best way of representing/exploring the data and more by what can be done and is available for free, the authors write.

The article “What Makes for Great Data Journalism?: A content analysis of data journalism awards finalists 2012–2015” was published online by Journalism Practice. It is available here.

Picture: Technology 2 by kev-shine, licence: CC BY 2.0