The Data Journalism Awards (DJA)- the first international contest recognising outstanding work in the field of data journalism – has just announced it is back in 2013 for its second ever year, this time with some exciting additions.
The Guardian’s Datablog don Simon Rogers and Data Journalism Handbook editor Liliana Bounegru are two new judges, plus there is a new category of Best Data Journalism Website and a new prize, The Public Choice, awarded to the project which receives most votes on the DJA website.
As well as The Public Choice award, a judging panel will award €15,000 in prize money to eight winners (one small media outlet and one large), in the four categories of data-driven investigative journalism; data storytelling (text, visualisation, video); data-driven applications (mobile or web) and data journalism website or section. Last year’s winners included the Guardian’s Riot Rumours misinformation visualisation, Mother Jones’ Terrorists for the FBI project and Politnetz AG’s data app for transparent politics in Switzerland.
Founded in 2011, the DJA were set up by the Global Editors Network to recognise outstanding work in the field of data journalism, and seek to highlight the best practices in data journalism, inspire journalists by showcasing the best work, demonstrate the value of data journalism among editors and media executives, and enhance collaboration between journalists, developers, designers and issue experts.
The Awards have become a lot more interactive this year, with the introduction of a browsable gallery of the 2012 shortlisted entries. My favourite pieces include an art visualisation which shows in a graphic and acoustic way the deaths caused by drug wars in Mexico (in the Data Visualisation Local category) and a video highlighting an international investigation into illegal cross-border waste trafficking (Data Investigation International category), which the authors produced using TOR browsers for anonymous investigation, encrypted emails to protect their data and the CMAP tool for visualisation. Have a look yourself and choose your favourites, but don’t forget to share across social media!
The winners will be announced 20 June 2013, and Interhacktives will be keeping you posted along the way.