Brazilian Association of Newspapers and Knight Center offer online training on data journalism

Journalists interested in Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR) and data journalism can now enroll in the online course in Portuguese “Introduction to Data Journalism,” developed by the Professional Qualification Program of the National Association of Newspapers (ANJ) as part of their first international training partnership, established with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. The course will be instructed byJosé Roberto de Toledo between Nov. 4 and Dec. 2.

“Introduction to Data Journalism” will teach participants the basic concepts of CAR, the differences between CAR and data journalism, the basics of infographics and data scraping and some practical tools for data journalism and the creation of interactive maps. The course is designed for journalists that have some experience with electronic spreadsheets.

Applicants can enroll on ANJ’s website until Oct. 31. They can sign up individually or in a group at a discounted rate. ANJ members will also receive discounts, as will anyone who enrolls before Oct. 3. See the complete price table here.

The online course will be divided into weekly modules with multimedia presentations and links to sources. The majority of the activities can be done at the times and dates that best fit the participants’ schedules. Students should expect to spend 5-8 hours each week on the course. More information on the content of each module can be found here. 

Jose Roberto de Toledo has been a journalist since 1985. He currently coordinates Estadãõ Dados. He is a political analyst and columnist for RedeTV!. As one of the pioneers of CAR in Brazil, he has trained thousands of journalists for institutions such as the Knight Center, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation and Abraji. He is one of the founders and current vice president of Abraji. He was the editor of Painel, special reporter for Folha de São Paulo and editor in chief of Jornal do Terra.

The team at Estadão Dados — which is composed by journalists, programmers and designers who gather and interpret data using statistical analysis, algorithms, and visual graphics for newspaper Estado de S.Paulo and its website Estadão.com –will aid Toledo during the course. Click here to get to know the teaching assistants.

“We at Estadão Dados are all very excited about the opportunity. We will also learn in this process of preparing the course and, I’m sure, from the experiences that we will share with the students,” Toledo said.

This is the first joint activity between the Knight Center and ANJ, and it lays the groundwork for other online courses especially geared toward Brazilian journalists and programmed for 2014.

The course will be taught using the Knight Center’s Distance Learning platform, which has already benefited more than 7,000 journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean since it was created in 2003. When the participants complete the course, they will receive a participation certificate. The document will be sent by email in PDF to those who actively participate and complete the required work.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas was created in 2002 by Professor Rosental Alves, who holds the Knight Chair in Journalism and the UNESCO Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism. Launched with major, multi-year grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Center also has received grants from Open Society Foundations and other donors. The Knight Center also has been sustained with support from the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Communication, modest foundation grants and the public.