Overview

Now in its sixth edition, Data for Journalists is a straightforward and effective guide to using data for news stories. This concise textbook addresses all the key basic skills that data journalists need, including how to find and scrape data, how to build a database, how to visualize data, and how to use spreadsheets and database managers – before launching into coding and more advanced analysis. Alongside step-by-step instructions on beginning data analysis, Houston discusses why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the present day. Thoroughly revised and updated, this sixth edition features a new chapter on data visualization as well as new material on using free software such as Google Sheets and Datawrapper. Emphasizing that journalists are accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share, particularly if artificial intelligence is involved, this is an ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism and computer-assisted reporting.

Full Product Details

Author:   Brant Houston (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Edition:   6th edition
Weight:   0.453kg
ISBN:  

9780367763152

ISBN 10:   036776315
Pages:   234
Publication Date:   05 February 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Preface Features New to this Edition Acknowledgements Chapter 1: What Data Journalism and Computer-Assisted Reporting Is and Why Journalists Use It Chapter 2: Online Resources: Researching and Finding Data on the Internet Chapter 3: Getting Data Not on the Web: How to Find and Negotiate for Data Chapter 4: Building Your Own Database: How to Develop Exclusive Sources Chapter 5: Spreadsheets, Part 1: Basic Math and Data Analysis for Journalists Chapter 6: Spreadsheets, Part 2: More Math that Matters Chapter 7: The Database Manager, Part 1: Searching and Summarizing Chapter 8: Database Managers, Part 2: Matchmaking and Advanced Queries Chapter 9: Basic Data Visualization: Charts, Maps, and Social Network Analysis Chapter 10: Dirty Data: How to Fact Check Your Data and Clean It Chapter 11: How to Report and Write with Data Appendix A: Unstructured Data: Analyzing Text and Social Media Appendix B: Coding and Artificial Intelligence Selected Bibliography Glossary Index

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Author Information

Brant Houston is a Professor and the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois, where he teaches journalism and oversees an online newsroom. An award-winning journalist, he was an investigative reporter at U.S. newspapers for 17 years. For more than a decade, he served as executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a now 5,000-member association headquartered at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he also taught investigative and data reporting. Houston has conducted more than 400 seminars for professional journalists and students in 30 countries, and he is a co-founder of networks of nonprofit newsrooms and educators throughout the world. He is also the author of Changes in Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom and co-author of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook: A Guide to Documents, Databases, and Techniques.

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