Data Driven 2023 Showcases the Kryptonite Combination of Data and Journalism
By Esha Rana
On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, StoryLab, Humber College’s collaborative hub for data-driven storytelling, held its annual signature event, Data Driven. Investigative reporters, news developers and data advocates from across North America gathered at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto to discuss the importance and illustrate applications of data journalism. The one-day event featured workshops, a catered lunch and a snappy series of presentations called Data Show n’ Tell.
Speaking on the origins of the conference, David Weisz, director of StoryLab, shared that the conference came about as a proof-of-concept idea for establishing the data storytelling lab at Humber.
“I went to my associate dean at that time of the Faculty of Media & Creative Arts and proposed that we should do a data journalism conference,” he recalls. “It’s not something that we had in Canada, and we had growing talent here.”
A date was set, a venue was booked, and excited journalists showed up to make a day out of it. The enthusiasm of the attendees and participants generated the impetus to keep going.
Data Driven has been held every year since 2017, except for 2020, when the pandemic hit and disrupted the usual ways of working. The 2021 and 2022 editions were virtual, but no less stimulating. Now, finally, in 2023 the annual conference returned to its original in-person mode.
The day began with opening notes by David and a welcoming remark from Andrew Wicken, Head of News Partnerships at Google Canada. The company has been a long-time sponsor of the event.
After the opening remarks, the workshops started at 10 a.m. Tristan Lee, a data scientist at Bellingcat, showed attendees how to analyze and archive social media posts with Bellingcat’s Auto Archiver tool. Colleen Kimmett, Canadian Teaching Fellow at Google News Lab, walked people through the Google Journalist Studio, whereas Yang Sun and Mahima Singh, data editors at The Globe and Mail, demonstrated the use of Google Sheets for some of The Globe’s projects.
Ameesha Rana, a business student at Humber College, attended Data Driven for the first time. Although the conference had no direct bearing on her studies, she attended to understand what the buzz around data was all about. Reflecting on her experience, Ameesha says, “Data was only a word for me before. But attending the conference opened my eyes to what it was and what people were doing with it. It was a new and different environment, and I found it fascinating.”
The sentiment was echoed by other attendees who ranged from technologists and journalism students to seasoned journalists and communication professionals.
“I hope it continues to grow organically,” David shared when asked about his vision for the future of the conference. “I hope it becomes something that will endure as long as Humber does.”