Training data journalists. An analysis of postgraduate programs in Spanish universities and the degrees of professionals

Abstract

This article takes a closer look at the training of data journalists by examining in detail the postgraduate courses offered in Spanish universities. The starting point is a systematic compilation of the official degrees in this field that can be found in the databases of the Spanish Ministry of Universities, as well as a comparative analysis of the existing degrees for two academic years (2020/2021 and 2022/2023). This quantitative study is complemented by a survey of Spanish-speaking data journalism professionals about their training. The goal of this research is to shed light on current training in this discipline, which is one of the most promising for the future of journalism. The findings reflect an emerging but still evolving educational landscape consisting of fourteen specialised data journalism degree programmes, all of which will be offered as postgraduate programmes in the 2022/2023 academic year. These postgraduate programmes are primarily internal and offered by private universities. However, our survey of professionals showed that only 7% of communication specialists have training in this journalistic field. Consequently, Spain is one of the countries where data journalism has not yet fully taken hold in newsrooms due to a lack of adequate training and appropriately trained professionals.