Students make the news by producing original data journalism

EPFL and UNIL students collaborated with professional journalists to write data-driven articles on key social issues - family and money - for publication in the Tribune de Genève and other news outlets of Tamedia. In the framework of the master's course, Critical Data Studies , students had the opportunity to work with the data journalists Paul Ronga, of Tamedia , and Cécile Denayrouse, of the affiliated Tribune de Genève , in order to develop articles for publication in these news platforms. Their articles published yesterday [or other date], address pressing issues with broad relevance: how Covid-19 has changed spending patterns and the carbon footprint associated with having a baby. Preparing these articles under the guidance of Ronga and Denayrouse allowed the students to explore what it means to work with social data. Public outreach is a core objective of the Critical Data Studies course. Its interdisciplinary teaching team includes Christine Choirat, from the Swiss Data Science Center , Selim Krichane, GameLab UNIL-EPFL co-founder and coordinator of the TILT courses , Semion Siderenko, a machine learning engineer who served as TA and Charlotte Mazel-Cabasse, who has a background in Science and Technology Studies and directs the UNIL-EPFL dhcenter. Together, they devised a pedagogical model that blends analytical perspectives from data science and social and human sciences with hands-on engagement beyond EPFL.