Schedule

Please consult Smith’s academic calendar.

Part I: What Is Data Journalism?

1. Tue, Jan 27

• Complete Pre-course questionnaire
• What is Data Journalism?
• In-class exercise:
  1. Choose one: What’s Going On in this Graph?
  2. Discuss the prompts
  3. Write a 6–12 word headline
  4. Draft a paragraph
  5. What data would you need to draw this graphic?

NoteHomework

• Finish Pre-course questionnaire
• Read Steier, J. (2025). The playbook used to “prove” vaccines cause autism. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/19/opinion/vaccines-autism-evidence.html
• Read Gabbert, E. (2022). A poem (and a painting) about the suffering that hides in plain sight. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/06/books/auden-musee-des-beaux-arts.html

2. Thu, Jan 29

• Scrollytelling
• Major assignment 1 - Short Article

NoteHomework

• Start Major Assignment 1

3. Tue, Feb 3

• Intro to Github
• Collaborating/Branches/Github 2
• Continue discussion of data - Teamwork

NoteHomework

• Read Schick, T., & Samayoa, M. (2025). How the pacific northwest’s dream of green energy fell apart. Oregon Public Broadcasting. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/12/oregon-washington-green-energy-bonneville/
• Read Schick, T., & Samayoa, M. (2026). Our reporting showed washington ranks last in green energy growth. Now the state is working to speed it up. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-renewable-energy-projects-grid-upgrades
• Read Dailey, K., Prakash, A., Norman, Z., Nguyen, J., Luo, Z. S., & Cenziper, D. (2026). “A godsend”: ProPublica’s rx inspector tool is helping people find critical safety information on generic drugs. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/rx-inspector-reshaping-decisions-generic-drugs
• Read Roberts, B. (2026). ProPublica publishes unreleased data on the origins of generic prescription drugs. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/rx-inspector-generic-drugs-data

4. Thu, Feb 5

• Journalistic Style
• (Propublica article(s))

NoteHomework

• Read Joel K. Bourne, Jr. (2010). Is another deepwater disaster inevitable? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/gulf-oil-spill0
• Complete Deepwater Horizon assignment

5. Tue, Feb 10

• Writing with Numbers

6. Thu, Feb 12

• Major Assignment 2 - Feature Article introduction
• Managing Data Sets (OpenData, Lindsey’s sets, Propublica)

NoteHomework

• Major Assignment 1 - Short article draft due Sunday at midnight

Part II: Investigative Journalism

7. Tue, Feb 17

8. Thu, Feb 19

NoteHomework

• Major Assignment 1 - Short article final draft due Sunday at midnight

9. Tue, Feb 24

10. Thu, Feb 26

11. Tue, Mar 3

12. Thu, Mar 5

13. Tue, Mar 10

14. Thu, Mar 12

NoteHomework

• Team Charter due Friday by 5 pm

Spring Break

15. Tue, Mar 17

• SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS

16. Thu, Mar 19

• SPRING BREAK – NO CLASS

Part III: Data Journalism

17. Tue, Mar 24

18. Thu, Mar 26

NoteHomework

• Data Visualization due Sunday at midnight

19. Tue, Mar 31

20. Thu, Apr 2

21. Tue, Apr 7

22. Thu, Apr 9

NoteHomework

• Major Assignment 2 - Long article draft due Sunday at midnight

23. Tue, Apr 14

24. Thu, Apr 16

NoteHomework

• Major Assignment 2 - Long article draft due Sunday at midnight

25. Tue, Apr 21

26. Thu, Apr 23

NoteHomework

• Major Assignment 2 - closeread due Sunday at midnight

27. Tue, Apr 28

28. Thu, Apr 30

References

Dailey, K., Prakash, A., Norman, Z., Nguyen, J., Luo, Z. S., & Cenziper, D. (2026). “A godsend”: ProPublica’s rx inspector tool is helping people find critical safety information on generic drugs. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/rx-inspector-reshaping-decisions-generic-drugs

Roberts, B. (2026). ProPublica publishes unreleased data on the origins of generic prescription drugs. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/rx-inspector-generic-drugs-data

Schick, T., & Samayoa, M. (2026). Our reporting showed washington ranks last in green energy growth. Now the state is working to speed it up. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/washington-renewable-energy-projects-grid-upgrades

Schick, T., & Samayoa, M. (2025). How the pacific northwest’s dream of green energy fell apart. Oregon Public Broadcasting. https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/12/oregon-washington-green-energy-bonneville/

Steier, J. (2025). The playbook used to “prove” vaccines cause autism. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/19/opinion/vaccines-autism-evidence.html

Gabbert, E. (2022). A poem (and a painting) about the suffering that hides in plain sight. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/06/books/auden-musee-des-beaux-arts.html

Joel K. Bourne, Jr. (2010). Is another deepwater disaster inevitable? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/gulf-oil-spill0