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Sigma Awards

Showcasing Data Journalism Excellence 

“Empower, elevate and enlighten the global community of data journalists.” Since 2020, the Sigma Awards honour the best data journalism projects from around the world.  

The Sigma Awards highlight and celebrate the work of great data journalists, and seek to inspire others for exchange, mutual learning. The goal is also to use excellent work to strengthen a global community of data journalists beyond the competition itself. The awards showcase the deployment of tools in investigations, present different strategies for access and the creation of data, storytelling and collaborative arrangements. Depending on the available expertise and resources, all of these components in a data journalism project can be challenging in different regions or contexts. To increase the value of project outputs for the data journalism community, award applicants are asked to provide information about used technologies and challenges throughout the project as well as the impact that it reached. The Sigma Awards jury then focuses on methods of data collection and analysis, appreciating innovative approaches that inspire the field of data journalism. More traditional criteria are also considered, such as storytelling, presentation and visualisation as well as the public service of a story.  

In 2023, there were nine data journalism projects and one portfolio awarded. The winning story “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes” was published by The Associated Press, Frontline from the US in March 2022. It resulted from the work of a large, diverse team of journalists, filmmakers, and web producers. Besides the investigative efforts, the jury emphasised the overall presentation of the story. 

For the Sigma Awards, everyone is welcome to submit their project. The Sigma Awards community also offers  ongoing updates by joining their newsletter or the Sigma Slack team. Exchange and discussion about topics relevant to data journalism are the core of this channel and include experts and enthusiasts from around the world.   

Read more about the Sigma Awards on the website.   

(FG)

InfraPublics Lesson

Data journalists often seek to address pertinent issues through engaging storytelling and the collection of data. Quite often, such data is not simply out there but can be created from existing and new resources through digital methods but also classic investigative techniques. Output formats for data journalism are important since visualisations or interactive graphics can engage audiences in different ways than do podcasts, articles or videos. It is important to see data journalism as a form of journalistic practice, where technical skills and professional routines of news work coalesce, often requiring the composition of teams with diverse skill sets. Awards such as Sigma showcase excellent work in data journalism and inspire routines for further projects, serving as a benchmark and reference for emerging routines, approaches and themes.

Literature:

Bounegru, Liliana; Gray, Jonathan (eds.) (2021). The Data Journalism Handbook. Amsterdam University Press. dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1qr6smr (Open Access). 

Loosen, Wiebke; Reimer, Julius; De Silva-Schmidt, Fenja (2020). “Data-Driven Reporting: An on-Going (R)evolution? An Analysis of Projects Nominated for the Data Journalism Awards 2013–2016.” Journalism 21(9): 1246-1263. dx.doi.org/10.1177/1464884917735691. 

Beiler, Markus; Irmer, Felix; Breda, Adrian (2020). “Data Journalism At German Newspapers and Public Broadcasters: A Quantitative Survey of Structures, Contents and Perceptions.” Journalism Studies 21(11): 1571-1589. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670x.2020.1772855. 

Appelgren, Ester (2018). “An Illusion of Interactivity. The Paternalistic Side of Data Journalism.” Journalism Practice 12(3): 308-325. dx.doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1299032. 

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Revised 20.02.2024