Nicholas Frew

Reporter

Bachelor of Journalism (Hons)'18, Master of Journalism, 2019

I like working with numbers; I like finding the stories out of that. I just really saw the value and importance of data investigation ... My dad has always told me that I’ve always had a sense of justice, so if something weird is happening or if something isn't adding up, I’m always drawn to those stories and figuring out why …

Nicholas Frew, BJ(Hons)’18, MJ’19, uses numbers to report the news of the day in new and exciting ways. Finding datasets that shed light on an issue helps him reveal stories about the people behind those figures.

Originally from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, Nicholas now creates data-driven stories for CBC Edmonton and has worked in newsrooms across the Prairies including Winnipeg and Regina.

Nicholas’s story about firefighters in Saskatchewan pushing for better cancer protection helped prompt change in the provincial legislature. The province introduced a bill adding six new types of cancer to the list of what is covered by workers’ compensation, giving Saskatchewan the broadest cancer coverage in the country at the time.

Nicholas has also written an award-winning feature about Winnipeg Olympian Skylar Park, and a feature about young NHL star Connor Bedard. Most recently, he spent weeks covering the wildfires in Jasper, and the Edmonton Oilers run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Here, Nicholas shares why he got involved in the world of reporting, the power numbers can have and his thoughts on the future of data journalism.

Why did you decide to study journalism?

I grew up as an athlete, so I was always fascinated by sports reporters because I just thought they had the coolest job in the world. That was always kind of in the back of my mind, because I also liked writing, and I was good with numbers. And as I was getting older, I recognized things happening around the world and the importance of news.

Once I got to journalism school, I remember my first J-school class, Lezlie Lowe, BA(Hons)’96, MFA’16, was the lecturer that day, and she was telling us about the impact that journalism can actually have and the changes that can come about. And I remember walking out of that class being like, “Oh yeah, I made the right decision. I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

Were there any specific courses, projects, or professors at King’s that inspired your passion for data journalism?

I was on an engineering track—growing up, there was a huge stress on being good at math and science. And so, once I got into Fred Vallance-Jones’ class in third year, that’s when I was like, “I have something here. I enjoy doing this heavy research work.” I like working with numbers; I like finding the stories out of that. I just really saw the value and importance of data investigation, and that was just my bag. My dad has always told me that I’ve always had a sense of justice, so if something weird is happening or if something isn’t adding up, I’m always drawn to those stories and figuring out why, because if something is wrong or there’s an anomaly somewhere, then that should be reported. I mean, Fred’s like the godfather of data journalism there, right?

How does data journalism shed light on injustices in a way that other forms of journalism can’t?

I always say data journalism is a cousin of investigation. They’re not the same, but they are very much linked. So much of investigation now is data journalism, because you just need those skills, whether it’s [for] freedom of information requests or knowing what data sets to comb through to find the stories that you need. In terms of daily journalism, you can still use data journalism to even just bolster your daily news.

The second way, which is normally what I do, is more of the enterprise side. One example was in 2022 I did a story about how there had been a record number of deaths in Alberta’s child welfare system, and how four out of five of them were Indigenous kids, and it got a lot of traction. It was all publicly available; anyone could go find these numbers. It just put a light on this issue.

And sometimes that’s what it is, not everyone has the time of day to go through all these different data portals. So, I’m in a fortunate position where it’s my job to go through those things. It’s just a different way to hold people accountable. It gets away from the “he said, she said,” which is sometimes all the news sounds like. Numbers don’t lie.

Can you describe a time that something you learned at King’s came up in your job?

That’s every day. Growing up I didn’t have anyone influencing me in that way, so I had to learn everything at King’s, whether it’s interviews, or data skills, how to use Excel, how to do data visualizations.

I remember specifically in my interview for my data journalism job, they asked me if I had done my own data visualizations and what programs I use. And I was able to list off that I’m very fluid in this, this and this. I thought it was a softball question, but it really wasn’t, I’ve learned now. Seriously, literally everything I do on a day-to-day basis, the foundation of that was set at King’s.

As data journalism continues to evolve with advancements in AI, how do you see the role of data journalists changing in the next five to 10 years?

Ultimately, honestly, it’s kind of going to be the same. There are some newsrooms that are tinkering with AI but think it’s a tool. It’s never going to replace us, because you need someone to vet, to figure out what the story is, who are the people who are impacted. That, at the end of the day, is what we do, and whether we use AI or whether we don’t, that’s never going to change.

I think the key thing is that we learn how to use it as a tool in a way to benefit journalism. But we can’t necessarily bank on it. You can’t just take it as gospel. Those conversations are happening now to figure out how we use this in our sphere. But honestly, it might be a little too early to tell. I mean, 10 years down the road, that’s a long time, especially in our industry. There’s so much change that’s even happened in the last 10 years.

It might be a little too early to tell exactly what its impact will be, but I see it as a tool. It will never replace us. If we just give it to the robots, then why are we even doing this?

What emerging trends or technologies in data journalism are you the most excited about?

I would say the visualization side, like, whether it’s using AI. But just technology in general is becoming so sophisticated. Even within the past year, the different options I’ve been able to mess around with are insane. So, I would say, from a visualization side, I’m really excited to see what we can do. Some of the stuff that we’re able to do now—to tell stories and to show instead of telling—I’m so excited to see where that goes. And that’s how you know you’re a nerd.