After a looong absence, here is the latest episode of the FTD podcast. This time, we talk to Peter Grensund and Jens Finnäs, who write data-driven news stories at the Stockholm arm of Journalism++ (J++). Among many other things, Jens has a great resource site (sorry, Swedish only) about data journalism and Peter has won a prestigious award for a “mortgage map“, a visualization of mortgage rates in different parts of Sweden.

Some topics discussed:

The term “data journalism” (or precision journalism, database journalism etc.) Peter and Jens emphatically stated that they are first and foremost journalists, perhaps just a bit more data literate than average. After all, all journalism is about collecting information, weighing it and telling an interesting story.
The career prospects of a data-driven journalist.
Which media companies are the most forward-looking in Sweden in terms of these things.
Excel as the “Swiss army knife of data journalism” vs. R
How the barrier to entry is actually quite low. It is not difficult for a journalist to learn how to use data resources.

Enjoy!

Listen to the podcast | Follow The Data #5: Journalism and data