2017 marking events… in data – Data Journalism Awards – Medium

As usual during the holiday season, news organisations have gathered to celebrate: Thomson Reuters put together a collection of their favourite graphics of 2017, so did The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, amongst others. Also, The Financial Times shared secrets behind their best charts of the year.

In this article we’ve picked marking events from 2017 which triggered the most compelling data journalism projects from different countries in the world: natural disasters, the UK and French elections, the Paradise Papers revelations, North Korea nuclear weapons, Brexit, but also the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar (…and Trump).

Hurricanes, floods, but also destructive wildfires have unfortunately dominated the news in many countries this past year. Data journalism teams have produced some of the most compelling coverage, often driven by maps and graphics (some also played with satellite imagery). Here are some examples we’ve liked:

News teams around the world tried to make sense of North Korea nuclear force this past year, specifically in the context of threats towards the US, and UN sanctions. Here are some cool examples:

It is said to be the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis (source: UN). Risking their lives by sea or on foot, more than half a million people have fled the northern Rakhine province of Myanmar since August 2017. Here are data journalism projects we’ve found on the topic:

The Paradise Papers are a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to journalists from Süddeutsche Zeitung.The German newspapershared these documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and a network of more than 380 journalists worldwide. A sea of data journalism projects came out of it. Here are some examples:

National elections were run in many countries this year. The general election in the UK and the presidential election in France generated a lot of data-driven stories. Here are some of our favourites:

Other example by The Guardianhereandhere.

Many people argue that 2017 biggest event in the world’s economical sphere was Britain’s vote to leave the EU, that thing we call “Brexit”. Here is some coverage we’ve found that used data:

An other example from The Guardianhere.

There isn’t enough of a Medium post to list all of the coverage Trump got from data journalism teams around the world. From fact-checking, tracking of lies, and conflicts of interests, news organisations had a lot to play with when covering the US president. Here are some examples that marked us in 2017: