Investigative Data Journalism Training
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Tell stories with data

Hi 👋

I’m Nicu, an investigative data journalist and trainer based in London. I have 15 years of working in newsrooms including the New Statesman, BBC News and Global Witness.

Over the years, I have built a collection of resources and tutorials that help journalists learn how to incorporate data into their work. This site makes some of those resources publicly available.

I also offer in-person and online training sessions for newsrooms, groups of journalists or other organisations who want to get better at data. You can find our more about my training below, or you can get in touch to discuss your needs.

In the last couple of years, I have also been working on ways to responsibly use AI in journalism. If you would like to learn more, feel free to drop me a line.

Get in touch

Free Resources

What I teach

I can help elevate your data skills regardless of the level you are currently at.

For beginners, I teach best practices for setting up a data project, how to ensure your work is well-documented and reproducible, how to find data and how to clean and transform it.

Then, I teach the basics of using spreadsheet applications like Excel or Google Sheets, including formulas, pivot tables and basic charts. I have been teaching these skills to postgraduate students at City, University of London, since 2021.

For more advanced users, I can help you learn how to use R or Python for robust, reproducible data analysis. This includes how to set up and structure a project, how to write clean and efficient code, and how to use version control to ensure your work is safe, reproducible, and easy to share with others.

Visualising data can often reveal patterns and insights that are not immediately obvious from simply looking at the results of an analysis.

I can help you understand why we visualise data, what types of charts and maps are out there, how to choose the right chart for your data and why it’s rarely (but not never) a pie chart.

Depending on your skill level, we can cover tools such as Datawrapper, Flourish or RAWGraphs, or more advanced libaries such as ggplot2 in R.

For advanced users, I can help you learn how to build custom interactive visualisations using JavaScript libraries such as D3.js and Svelte.

I have been working on ways to incorporate machine learning and generative AI into my work as a journalist for the past three years.

I have built a number of tools, including a library to help data journalists generate alt text for their charts and an AI agent that classifies spreadsheet based on internet research.

I have run workshops on how to build AI agents for journalists at the Dataharvest conference in 2025 and Climate Arena in 2024.

If you are interested in learning how AI can help enhance your work, and how it can’t, drop me a line.

Analysing and visualising data is only part of the job. To tell a compelling story, you need to structure your findings in a way that is engaging and easy to understand.

With over 15 years of experience in journalism and a Most Creative Use of Data Journalism award, I can help you learn how to avoid common pitfalls and communicate your findings effectively.

Previous Experience

City, University of London

Since 2021 I have been teaching a data journalism module to postgraduate students. It covers basic data analysis, visualisation, and storytelling.

Conferences

I presented workshops on AI-powered document classification at Climate Arena in 2024 and Dataharvest in 2025.

Get in touch

 

Copyright 2025, Nicu Calcea • Made with 💜 in London