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It allows audiences to find stories for themselves, gives context to disconnected anecdotes and, according to Tim Berners-Lee, it's the future of journalism. So it was only a matter of time until the Guardian added a data interactive category to its prestigious Student Media Awards.
This year, the prize will go to someone who can turn masses of information into something that speaks clearly and shines visually. If you're interested in data journalism, but daunted by the sophistication of some of technical skills needed, don't be. Some of the best interactives are the simplest ones and it doesn't take years of Excel training or html coding to produce them.
If you're a newbie, you can start off by watching videos and reading notes for free from the University of California, Berkeley here. You can also try getting together with a group of people where your combined skills can produce something amazing through meetups like Hacks/Hackers.
It might be a Google Map, a Tableau chart or even a clickable animation - but the data you use matters as much as the visualisation. You can find numbers that bring an existing news story to life or find a story in the spreadsheet. We're all about open journalism though, so it's important that your entry includes the original data you used to write the piece (in .csv, .xls, .kml or any other machine readable format).
The closing date for all entries is 28 June, other useful information about the competition is available here. Best of luck, we look forward to receiving your entries.
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