The Winter School Marathon Continues at the Institute of Media – «Data Journalism» Becomes the Second in Line

From January 31 to February 2, senior undergraduate and specialist students, along with alumni from previous years, actively participated in master classes led by HSE instructors. They worked in teams and developed their own projects. All of this is intended to help them achieve their goal – admission to the graduate programs of the Institute of Media.

© Olga Zotova

The Winter School was opened by a lecture from Anastasia Yakunina, the Programme Creative Supervisor of the educational track «Data Journalism» (part of the master's program «Contemporary Journalism»). Anastasia shared details about the program, the school itself, and this year's assignment. She emphasized that applying for this track should be a conscious decision.

The «Data Journalism» track doesn’t need advertising – and that’s not just a figure of speech. It’s a direction that requires a clear understanding of what lies ahead. You can’t rely on your undergraduate background alone and think you can skip classes. Sure, it’s great that you have that foundation, but now let’s take a step forward and look at how we work with data». — Anastasia Yakunina

Alexey Nikolov, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries and Programme Academic Supervisor of the «Contemporary Journalism» program, also welcomed participants. He explained that part of the program is taught in English – and there's a good reason for that.

«I noticed that local graduates sometimes fall behind their international peers. I realized that those who studied abroad gained more practical experience. I wanted to create a program that reflects real-world work. <...> These days, it's much harder to go abroad, but people still want a world-class education and the opportunity to engage with the global community. Without English, that’s nearly impossible». – Alexey Nikolov

As part of the educational portion, Anastasia Yakunina gave a lecture on what data journalism really is. The talk covered best practices for working with data and featured examples of how to gather and structure information.

The second day started with a consultation. By this time, participants had already formed teams for their projects and could ask the track curator any questions. The day continued with master classes: Alexey Novichkov, Associate Professor at the Institute of Media, shared his knowledge of data visualization and demonstrated how to apply it in Figma – a tool for designing website and app prototypes as well as graphical content. Maria Kazakova, a data journalist at the Moscow Traffic Management Center and lecturer at the Institute of Media, showed how to simplify data work using Google Sheets. The educational part concluded with another lecture by Anastasia Yakunina, this time on data manipulation – and how to avoid it.

Participants then presented their group projects, which focused on data identification and analysis, followed by structuring the data based on knowledge acquired from the lectures and workshops.

Throughout all three days, participants were supported by second-year master’s students serving as curators, ready to consult on any issue.

«The curators offered all kinds of help and shared advice they had learned over two years in the master’s program. I was inspired by their enthusiasm for their field, their teachers, and the knowledge they gained. Even after just one day of working on a project together, they supported us like we were their own students», – said Aigul Akhmetova, an alumna of HSE Saint Petersburg’s Faculty of Sociology and Social Informatics.

The Winter School was open not only to HSE students and graduates but also to those from other universities.

«I’ve been following HSE’s activities on social media for a long time and actively participate in them. For example, in December, I gave a talk at the 2nd Student Research Conference «Young Media». That’s where I heard about the Media Institute’s Winter School. I immediately decided to apply – and I don’t regret it! In such a short time, I gained both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. It was an invaluable experience! I had the chance to talk to data journalism experts, hear their feedback on the work we did during the School, make new connections, and develop both my soft and hard skills», – shared a student of the Faculty of Journalism at the University of World Civilizations named after V. V. Zhirinovsky.

One of the advantages of the Winter School is the opportunity to earn five additional points toward your portfolio when applying to the master’s program, provided the participant attends all sessions and takes part in the group project.

«I’m planning to apply to the master’s program in Contemporary Journalistics, so I checked in advance what adds extra points to your application. The Winter School is a great way to earn them, but also to get familiar with the program’s content. What makes the School really stand out is its focus on practice and teamwork. I think it’s a great experience – definitely worth it», – said Maxim Karmazа, a fourth-year student at HSE’s Faculty of Philology.

Anna Gamaonova, first-year student of the «Media Communications» program

Translated by Sergey Podryadov, second-year student of the «International News Production»