We are delighted to announce this year’s Statistical Excellence in Journalism Award winners. The awards, now in their 18th year, are kindly sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Awards were presented at a ceremony at Errol Street, in four categories: ‘explaining the facts’, ‘data visualisation’, ‘investigative journalism’ and ‘best statistical commentary by a non-journalist’.
Professor Christl Donnelly, RSS VP for External Affairs and chair of the awards, said: ‘Getting to read the work submitted for this award is such a delight, and it’s fantastic to see the role statistics and data play in helping inform us about such a breadth of issues. Congratulations to all this year’s winners for their excellent work.’
Beccy Shipman, ESRC deputy director of data strategy and infrastructure, said: ‘ESRC is delighted to sponsor these awards and celebrate such worthy winners. Using relevant data to create diverse, evidence-based stories that help inform policy, research and practice for the benefit of all in society is vital in this ever-changing world.’
The 2024 winners are:
Best statistical commentary by a non-journalist
Winner: How do we know health screening programmes work? – Kit Yates for The Conversation
Data visualisation
Winner: A different way to measure the climate impact of food – Ben Throsby, El Lees, Evan Hensleigh, Matt McLean, Michelle Hennessy, Sondre Ulvund Solstad, The Economist
Explaining the facts
Winner: Who are private schools really for in modern Britain? These charts will tell you – Tom Calver, Times
Highly commended: How pension funds could be costing councils millions – Martin George, Local Government Chronicle
Investigative journalism
Winner: Exposing rainforest carbon credits: why offsetting isn’t working (podcast clip) - Patrick Greenfield & Michael Safi, Guardian (part of a joint investigation with Die ZEIT and SourceMaterial)
Highly commended: Water firms illegally spilled sewage on dry days - data suggests – Esme Stallard, Becky Dale, Jonah Fisher and Sophie Woodcock and Libby Rogers, BBC News
Highly commended: Data from satellites reveal the vast extent of fighting in Ukraine – Ainslie Johnstone, Andreas Moor, Dan Rosenheck, Matt McLean, Olivia Vane, Rosamund Pearce, Sondre Ulvund Solstad, The Economist