A Qualitative Research on Data Journalism Education in Higher Education: Risks and Opportunities

The purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities encountered in data journalism education offered by the journalism departments in Türkiye. The aim is to assess the current state of journalism education and provide a projection for its future. The increasing prevalence of data journalism practices in the profession has also heightened academic interest in data journalism. Globally and in Türkiye, communication faculties are increasingly incorporating data journalism courses into their curricula. Studies on data journalism education are limited in the literature. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 faculty members who teach data journalism in the journalism departments of communication faculties in Türkiye between August 10, 2021, and September 24, 2021. The findings were coded using the qualitative data analysis program NVIVO Pro 12 and subjected to content analysis. The analysis revealed that the development of data journalism education in Türkiye is becoming increasingly widespread. The difficulties encountered in integrating data journalism into the curriculum can be grouped under four main headings. The participants listed the most significant challenges as the lack of sufficient expertise among instructors on the subject, resistance to innovation, the numerical inadequacy of social sciences students, and the lack of infrastructure and technical resources in universities.