Symposium Creating Impact with Data Journalism:
Pathways to Civic Communication and Engagement
Time & Place 19 January 2024, 13-18 (CET), Aarhus University, Åbogade 34, building 5342, ADA
Meeting Room 333, 8200 Aarhus N
Online Meeting on Zoom - Meeting ID: 672 4861 6234 - Passcode: 2024

Agenda13:00-13:15

Christoph Raetzsch
Welcome and Introduction

13:15-13:30

Yuya Shibuya (University of Tokyo)
Civic Data: Building Democratic Participation through Civic Tech in the Age ofData Capitalism

13:30-13:45

Hendrik Lehmann (Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab, Berlin)
Advanced Journalism: Interactive Visualisation, Data Analysis and Collaboration
for Empowering Citizens (followed by discussion)

14:15-14:30

Break

14:30-14:45

Gianna-Carina Grün (Deutsche Welle, Data Journalism Team)
From Idea to Story: Establishing Data-driven Storytelling in an International
Media Company

14:45-15:00

Olaya Argüeso Pérez (CORRECTIV, Germany)
Strengthening Local Journalism Through Collaborative Data Practices

15:00-15:15

Kristoffer Dahl Sørensen (DMJX, Aarhus)Interdisciplinarity in Data Journalism: How Academia and Journalism Can
Bene t Each Other (followed by discussion)

15:45-16:15

Break

16:15-16:30

May Ee Wong (Aarhus University, Digital Design and Information Studies)
Retelling ‘Environmental Data’ through Critical Practice and Aesthetic Contexts

16:30-16:45

Jacopo Ottaviani (Code for Africa)
How Data Can Amplify (and Measure) the Impact of Journalism Projects

16:45-17:00

Christoph Raetzsch, Franziska Garms, Albína Mrázová, Marie Vestergaard
Bengtson (InfraPublics Team, Aarhus University)
Infrastructures and Civic Communication Practices: Insights and Outcomes fromthe InfraPublics Project. Launch of the InfraPublics Knowledge Base.

17:00-17:30

Closing Discussion Followed by a Reception (onsite only ;-)The symposium is supported by Aarhus Universitets Forskningsfond (AUFF) Project InfraPublics,
Department of Media and Journalism Studies (AU) and the Centre for University Studies in Journalism(CJU).

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Abstracts and Bios (alphabetical)
CHRISTOPH Raetzsch is
Associate Professor at theDepartment of Media andJournalism Studies ofAarhus University(Denmark). He works injournalism studies andresearches history andtheory of media
development and practicein journalism, publicspheres and urban spaces.
His recent research deals
with interpretations of smartness to animate civic
innovation in cities, the interfaces and infrastructures ofpublics besides journalism, and the emergent potentialof quotidian media practices to shape public
discourses. He is the principal investigator of the AUFFfunded project “InfraPublics: Infrastructures andInterfaces of Publics: Journalism for Civic
Communication in Urban Spaces” (2021-2024). From
2020-2022 he was chair of the ECREA conference
Rethink Impact in Aarhus.

University Dortmund. Both at TU Dortmund andbeyond, she additionally works as a data-driven
journalism trainer, sharing her skills and knowledge
from more than ten years of experience in differentareas of journalism. Gianna Grün holds a Bachelor
degree in Life Sciences and a Masters Degree in
Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Münster.
She also completed the post-graduate Lede Programat Columbia Journalism School in New York City.
Web: https://dw.com/data

HENDRIK Lehmann
Advanced Journalism. Interactive Visualisation, Data
Analysis and Collaboration for Empowering Citizens
There have never been more ways to tell a journalistic
story than today. With the majority of readers
consuming journalism on their phone, amazing ways ofstorytelling become possible. At the same time, digital
methods making use of collaboration both together
with readers as well as with other media organisations
internationally, allow for much deeper investigations. If
you combine both, collaboration as well asvisualisation with advanced data analysis, you cancreate new impactful stories that help tackle thechallenges of our times. I will showcase work examples
pointing in that direction.

GIANNA-CARINA Grün
From idea to story: Establishing data-driven
storytelling in an international media company
Producing stories for an international audience posesparticular challenges. How do we select ideas forstories and which criteria matter? How do our datadriven stories integrate into the overall journalistic
output of Deutsche Welle? And how does data
journalism add to a media outlet's coverage? Alongthese questions, I'll elaborate on the process ofestablishing and integrating a data unit within a
traditional media company. I will also talk about how
the presence of a data team adds value both tocompany culture as well as for audiences.
Gianna-Carina Grün is a data journalist and leads
Deutsche Welle's Data-Driven Journalism Team thatshe founded in 2017. Since late 2021, she is also a
research fellow and PhD candidate at TechnicalHendrik Lehmann is Head of Tagesspiegel Innovation
Lab and coordinates a European research network forurban journalism. Him and his team work withinvestigative data analysis, dataviz and interactive web
applications. They also try hard to make use of AI forjournalism, especially for investigations. Recent
projects include „Cities 4 Rent“, a „Female Fight for theFuture“, #GhostDebts and #GroundControl. Hendrik
has been awarded with the German Reporter Prize(2018, 2019 and 2021), the Data Journalism Award
2019, the Ernst Schneider Prize 2020 and the European
Press Prize 2022. He studied Political Science at FU
Berlin Berlin as well as Urban and Digital Sociology atGoldsmiths College London.
Web: https://urbanjournalism.org/ &https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/Page 2 of 4

By dissecting real-world
examples, I'll uncover how
strategic data utilisation canelevate storytelling, uncoverhidden narratives, and drive
societal change and urbandevelopment. I'll delve into
the symbiosis of data andjournalism, showcasing the power of open data andmapping tools in creating transformational data
journalism projects. Measuring the impact ofjournalism is crucial both for the journalists andfunders: based on real case scenarios and projects I
had the chance to work on, we will look into how topossibly do that in practical terms.
Key project: https://sigmaawards.org/mappingmakoko/
Jacopo Ottaviani is a computer scientist who works as
Code for Africa’s Senior Strategist. As an International
Center For Journalists Knight Fellow in 2016-2019,
Jacopo built teams and programmes supported by theWorld Bank, Google News Initiative, GIZ and the Billand Melinda Gates Foundation. His mix of technicalskills, as a computer scientist and data journalist, hasresulted in a series of projects published by, amongothers, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, El País andInternazionale. He worked on multiple projects
supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
and the European Journalism Center. He is a memberof the European Press Prize preparatory committee andworks as a trainer with BBC Media Action.
Social: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacopoottaviani/ X: https://x.com/JacopoOttaviani

KRISTOFFER Dahl
SørensenInterdisciplinarity indata journalism: How
academia andjournalism canbene t each other
The world isbecoming more digitised with tons of data available
that can provide new insights to the public. From thePanama Papers to the mapping of Corona cases, dronestrikes, soil pollution, urban development, and parking
nes, data journalism is relevant – both in the dailynews coverage and for larger, investigative projects

Kristoffer Dahl Sørensen has a Bachelor's degree inMedia Studies and a Master's degree in Analytical
Journalism from Aarhus University and The Danish
School of Media and Journalism (DMJX). He is
associated with DMJX as a teacher in journalism on theMaster's supplementary subjects and on the Mundus
Journalism programme, where he has taught datajournalism. Kristoffer has experience with data-driven
journalism from the nonpro t Danish-SwedishØresundsinstituttet, where he was an analyst for severalyears and prepared business reports combining
qualitative and quantitative methods. He has also
worked with investigative, data-driven journalism atThe Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

MAY Ee Wong
Retelling ‘Environmental
Data’ through Critical
Practice and Aesthetic
Contexts
This talk introduces “Designand Aesthetics ofEnvironmental Data”, aresearch project funded bythe Aarhus UniversityResearch Foundation (AUFF), consisting of project
leader Jussi Parikka, Paolo Patelli and May Ee Wong. It
relates the project’s thematic concerns that examine
the epistemic and cultural basis and assumptions of‘environmental data’, which is commonly regarded asdigital information of the environment. The project asks
fundamental questions of what ‘environmental data’ is,how ‘environmental data’ is constructed and how it
relates to the material, spatial and infrastructuralcontexts that shape its production and uses. This talktouches upon the group’s theoretical andmethodological approaches that re ect andexperiment with the material and situated character ofenvironmental data. It presents the group’sfi

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JACOPO Ottaviani
How Data Can Amplify (andMeasure) the Impact ofJournalism Projects

where reporters aim to connect the dots for a bigger
understanding of events both globally and locally. The
increasing amount of data gives journalism a new keyrole in analyzing and processing raw data into newknowledge in user-engaging and time-ef cient ways,
according to researchers. But data journalism needs tobring together several disciplines to make an impact.
When one of the pioneers of data journalism, PhilipMeyer, talked about precision journalism in the 1960s,
it was based on the idea that social science methods
could bene t journalism. Hypothesis testing andtheory building were some of his tools as a reporter toprovide better journalistic explanations to currentevents. From then until today, interdisciplinarity has
been important in data journalism newsrooms, but how
can academic skills more precisely strengthen datajournalism? And how can classic journalistic virtues
strengthen data journalism?

environmental audiotour in the 2023 Helsinki Biennale
as an artistic and curatorial intervention that addresses
multiple geographical scales and temporalities withregard to the public space of Helsinki.
May Ee Wong is currently a postdoctoral researcher inthe “Design and Aesthetics for Environmental Data”
project at Aarhus University. With a Cultural Studies
PhD from the University of California, Davis, herinterdisciplinary research interests lie at theintersections of critical conceptions of the built
environment, feminist Science Technology and Society(STS) Studies, environmental media and humanities
and contemporary media, design and visual culture.
Project: https://cc.au.dk/en/dafed
YUYA Shibuya
Civic Data: Building Democratic Participation throughCivic Tech in the Age of Data Capitalism

OLAYA Argüeso Pérez
Strengthening Local Journalism Through Collaborative
Data Practices
Local journalism has been one of the main victims ofthe media crisis of recent years. However, almost halfof Europeans claim to have read local news in the last
week, second only to political news. In other words,
local news is still interesting material. At CORRECTIV,
we are committed to strengthening the local press inGermany and Europe with two initiatives that aim tocreate networks of local journalists. What have welearned? What are the challenges?

Civic data, which is both captured and owned bycitizens for citizens, is essential for addressing local
issues that affect current and future generations. Thisdata empowers them with knowledge and resources totake action. As large technology companies continue
to collect more top-down data, the value of civic data
will rise as a representation medium for local issues. In
this talk, I will discuss the potential and limits of civic
data in building democratic participation by exploringsome civic tech initiative cases and highlighting gaps
in administrative statistics, big data generation,collection, and analysis.
Yuya Shibuya is an Associate Professor at the Center
for Spatial Information Science at The University ofTokyo, Japan. Her research focuses on the interaction
between digital and physical worlds, designing andpromoting democratic participation in the digital era.
She uses quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
to explore and design data and digital intervention andto understand its impact on people and society.
Web: https://www.yuyashibuya.com/

Olaya Argüeso Pérez is editor-in-chief at CORRECTIV,
where she leads the international investigations since2019. After more than a decade reporting about
economy, business and nance at the most importantradio network in Spain (Cadena SER), Olaya decided toexpand her expertise into data journalism and joined
the Lede Program at Columbia University. After joining
CORRECTIV as a reporter, she took part in cross-borderinvestigations like The CumEx Files and Grand TheftEurope, which exposed multi billion tax frauds
happening all over Europe. In 2021, together with hercolleague Justus von Daniels, she was appointed
Editor In Chief of the Year in Germany.
Web: https://correctiv.org/ & https://correctiv.org/
lokal/

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