Data Storytelling for Civic Impact Study Group Launching in March
Friday, December 4, 2015
By Sam Liberty
02/20/2015
This March, you can participate in a four-session study group on Data Storytelling for Civic Impact.
The growth of data in journalism, storytelling and civics has ignited a rise in the number of university courses, workshops and hackathons that aim to teach students, professionals or community members their way around data. With that we have asked the following questions to achieve a better understanding around issues of data literacy and storytelling.
What are overarching educational approaches and concrete class activities that can build data science capacity in non-technical communications fields such as journalism, documentary film, arts, and civic media? How does storytelling fit into that?
What are the ethics and privacy concerns of storytelling with data? How do we introduce and surface ethical dilemmas around data-sets in a safe learning environment? What is the ethical role of the storyteller in relation to the media product/audience (objectivity? transparency? other?)
What do we mean by “civic impact”? What is the relationship between storytelling and social change? How do we measure impact?
How do we connect the historical contexts of storytelling and journalism?
Outcomes of the Study Group
The goal of this study group is to build a network of educators and practitioners that can develop shared educational approaches on issues surrounding BUILDING CAPACITY and data literacy, the ETHICS of data and the CIVIC IMPACT of data-driven storytelling and how to measure it. In addition, sharing best practices, examples, and curricula will aid those in the study group and outside practitioners.
Who should apply to participate?
-People in the Boston area (no Skype-ing in, sorry) -Current and future educators in data journalism, civic media, civic engagement, digital storytelling, communications, data science and data visualization -Industry professionals interested in the pedagogy of their work — Journalists, Artists, Information Designers, Activists, Visualization, Statisticians, Data Scientists, Filmmakers -Researchers from Science Technology Studies, Social Computing, Human-Computer -Interaction, Art & Design History, and other fields that study the impact of civics, data storytelling, and visualizations
For more details and to apply to the program, click here.
Feel free to share this opportunity with any others who might be interested in participating!