The School of Journalism investigative workshop has been nominated for an international Data Journalism Award for its interactive (902)9-1-1 project. It was one of 58 projects nominated from over 300 entries from 60 countries.
The Global Editors Network has launched the Data Journalism Awards this year with support from Google and the European Journalism Centre.
The King’s project was nominated in the ‘data-driven application, local/regional’ category and is up against the Texas Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, the University of Koblenz-Landau, and others. Only two other nominations are from Canada, the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
For the (902)9-1-1 project, King’s students mapped some 650,000 calls to the Halifax Regional Police by street and type of call. This data revealed that police go to Pinecrest-Highfield Park in Dartmouth more often than anywhere else in HRM.
The workshop students spent six weeks combing through the data and talking to people in the area before creating a series of articles and a multi-media slide show that tell the stories of poverty, violence, drugs, and suicide they uncovered.
“I am tremendously proud of the students who worked on this important project, and I am humbled by the stature of our fellow nominees,” says Kelly Toughill, director of the King’s School of Journalism. “This award highlights powerful new tools available to journalists, and recognizes those who use them well. Our students coded, tagged, and mapped huge amounts of data to create something of lasting value to the people of Halifax. I hope this nomination encourages others to follow their lead.
The winners will be announced in each of six categories on May 31 at the News World Summit in Paris.
