Communication Students Learn about Data Journalism

More than 90 University of Scranton students participated in Google News Initiative Training which took place on campus in February and was sponsored by the University’s Department of Communication and Media and the Society of Professional Journalists. Participants were trained on the use of free tools available for data journalism.

Frank Bi, an editorial engineer for Vox Media’s SB Nation in New York City, led the training that covered dataset searches, pivot tables, web scraping and other topics.

According to communication professor Kim Pavlick, Ph.D., “several students said they referenced that they had Google News Lab training during job and internship interviews, and the training allowed them to speak fluently with the people who were interviewing them.”

“I try to take every opportunity to give my students the ability to succeed in their job searches,” said Dr. Pavlick.

The Google News Initiative aims to help journalists and news organizations use new technology to meet their needs in the digital age. The Society of Professional Journalists and the Google News Initiative partnered in 2015 to provide training to journalists looking to apply Google’s tools in their reporting. Since then, more than 21,000 journalists have been trained at more than 550 locations across the United States and Canada. 

The Google News Lab training session was offered free of charge and was open to students, professional journalists and the general public.