Awards, Data Journalism Featured at Three European Conferences

Lots of activity this past weekend by our colleagues in northern Europe.  Two of the largest and oldest investigative journalism associations held their annual conferences in Norway and Sweden, while the German association held a state-of-the-art data journalism conference.

In Tønsberg, Norway, more than 600 journalists gathered for the annual conference of SKUP, the Stiftelsen for en Kritisk og Undersøkende Presse (Foundation for Critical and Investigative Press). Speakers came from 11 countries. Fifty entries competed in SKUP’s annual investigative reporting awards, and the winners included reports on consulting firm McKinsey & Co., medical insurance decisions, road accident data, and the underground trade in bomb chemicals. Tweets for the conference can be found by searching #skup12.

Sweden’s investigative journalism association, Gravande Journalister (Digging Journalists) hosted 830 journalists at its annual conference, held in Malmo, Sweden. The conference honored nine stories with awards, including reports on police incompetence in counterterrorism, questionable business in the railway, advertising, and health care industries, NATO ties, and DNA technology. Tweets for the conference can be found by searching for #gräv12; more on the gathering (in Swedish) at the Grav12 conference site.

Meanwhile, in Hamburg, Germany, more than 130 journalists and journalism students gathered for a two-day conference on data journalism, organized by Netzwerke Recherche. The conference featured more than 40 panels and hands-on sessions, with speakers from Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and the US talking about the basics of computer-assisted reporting, data visualization, text mining, and more. Hands-on sessions included social network analysis, mapping, spreadsheets and database managers, Web research, and Google tools. Tweets from the conference can be found by searching for #drg12.