Data Journalism

Curriculum

This program enhances traditional reporting methods with data science skills.

Boost your watchdog credentials with data science

Gain competency in storytelling using data science tools and technology. In the data journalism concentration, you'll gain proficiency in coding, data visualization, ethics, interviewing, journalistic research methods, machine learning and web scraping.

This interdisciplinary concentration — offered in collaboration with the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering — allows you to expand your skills and knowledge to complement your existing levels of education and expertise, preparing you to enter newsrooms and other creative spaces where fluency in data science principles and numeracy are highly prized alongside writing and story ideation. Like other journalism programs in The Media School, data journalism at IU retains a strong emphasis on writing and visual communication.

You’ll graduate with a portfolio, pursue a high-level industry internship, work alongside peers in the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism and grow as a critical thinker.

Online certificate

If you can't commit to a full master's program, consider our online-only graduate certificate in data journalism. The curriculum is personalized for each student — with oversight from a faculty committee, students select 12 credit hours of Media School and Luddy courses from within the M.S. program to build upon their existing skills and meet their professional goals.

Learn more in the graduate bulletin

Courses

Guided by a committee of faculty from The Media School and the Luddy School, you will have an interdisciplinary program of courses. These include:

Public Affairs Reporting

Report on public affairs issues such as government, social welfare agencies, elections, political parties, special interest groups and more at the national, state and local levels.

Basic Data Science On-Ramp

Master data science skills including web scraping, machine learning principles, machine learning with Python, machine learning with R, machine learning with Java and natural language processing in Python and Tableau.

Faculty

You’ll work with Media School faculty who are journalism industry veterans, as well as scholars on media and technology, political communication and the networked spread of misinformation. Your Luddy professors are experts in computational linguistics, network science, data science and more.

Centers

The Media School hosts and partners with several centers and institutes that focus on specific areas of study and fields of expertise — expanding your opportunities for production, research, education and internships.

The Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism

The Arnolt Center teaches and produces top-tier investigative journalism covering the state of Indiana and beyond. Its work — produced by Master of Science and undergraduate students — is available at no cost to local, regional and national news outlets. As a student in the data journalism concentration, you’ll produce a capstone project to be published by the center and distributed nationally.

Visit the Arnolt Center's website

Observatory on Social Media

OSoMe investigates the role of media and technology in society, focusing on the spread of information and misinformation online. It provides resources and training to help students, journalists and citizens identify attempts to intentionally manipulate information and sway public opinion. Faculty who designed and teach in the data journalism program were part of the team that won a major donation from the Knight Foundation and expanded OSoMe into an interdisciplinary center. OSoMe’s external advisory board of industry professionals will assist you with your internship search.

Visit OSoMe's website

Careers

You’ll complete at least one internship during this program, and Media School faculty are standing by to help launch you on your career. Your work in this concentration will prepare you with in-demand skills that will set you apart. Whether you go on to work as an investigative reporter, data analyst or interactive designer, you’ll have the skills to analyze data to tell stories comprehensively and ethically.

Explore careers in journalism

Find a story that interests you and that can be only be told by coding. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can learn enough to do an insightful project.
Eric Blom, MS'19, newsroom developer at the San Francisco Chronicle