Empowering African Journalists through Data Journalism: The Media Hack Collective's Impact
In 2022, a State of Data Journalism Survey revealed a concerning statistic: more than three in four journalists around the globe lacked advanced data reporting skills. This knowledge gap has led to a lack of data-driven stories in newsrooms. However, in Africa, a group of dedicated journalists took it upon themselves to address this issue and equip their peers with the necessary data journalism skills and tools. The initiative was born as the Media Hack Collective (MHC).
This story begins in 2020, when MHC co-founders Alastair Otter and Laura Grant saw an opportunity to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We had both been in large mainstream newsrooms but had not had the opportunity to practice data journalism in a meaningful way. MHC was an opportunity to do some of the work we wanted to do,” said Otter.
Launched that same year, MHC started embarking on a mission to train journalists in major African hubs, such as South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. Their primary objective was to instill a working knowledge of data journalism skills and promote their integration into everyday journalism practices, which came to light because of COVID-19. “The value of data journalism skills came to the fore during COVID-19. We realized that the visualizations we shared were helping people understand how the pandemic was progressing,” said Otter.
Otter and Grant built an interactive dashboard that tracked COVID-19 cases in South Africa, and later expanded it to cover other African countries. Through these visualizations, they helped people understand the progression of the pandemic.
In October 2021, MHC organized a virtual data journalism masterclass and fellowship to train journalism students in crucial data reporting skills. Among the skills taught were sourcing, extracting, and analyzing datasets, producing data-driven stories, and creating infographics and visualizations. The fellows also received grants to support them creating their own data-driven stories.
One of the most significant impacts of MHC's training, according to Grant, was the development of journalists' ability to read and interpret data. “It’s about giving people confidence to know that if they encounter a statistic – like a school pass rate – they will be able to look at the original data, or they can explore data in a chart and find a trend that can add context to a story,” explained Grant. “It’s baby steps. The number of stories and the quality of the storytelling are only going to get better with time.”
More recently, MHC launched The Outlier, a publication that uses infographics, charts, and other data visualization tools to tell stories on various issues affecting people's lives—such as health, politics, education, climate change, and economics—to further engage audiences and make news more accessible. This initiative aims to present complex information in a more understandable and engaging manner.
MHC has many challenges in its mission to promote data journalism across the continent. Many newsrooms in Africa lack the resources to send their journalists for data journalism training.. The limited availability of data sources, especially in countries that censor or control the press, pose another hurdle for journalists seeking to incorporate data into their stories. To find some sort of way in to help these underrepresented journalists, MHC designed a free email-based introductory course to familiarize journalists with data journalism fundamentals. “We focus on [teaching] the basics, so we can introduce as many people as possible to what data journalism is and give them enough skills to start using data in their day-to-day work,” said Otter. “Our objective with training is to do what we can to showcase African data journalism and help others get into this [data journalism] space.”
MHC’s efforts have been instrumental in addressing the data journalism skills gap in Africa—but as noted above, this problem is global. From the freest free presses all the way down to news deserts, a whopping 75%+ of journalists are lacking in this skill set. Will other initiatives arise to match MHC, and provide training, support, and resources to produce impactful data-driven stories that enrich news coverage and foster greater understanding among the public? As the initiative continues to grow, it has the potential to revolutionize journalism on the continent and inspire other regions to embrace the power of data in storytelling, but only if newsrooms and passionate folks around the world make the effort.
