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Introducing Chicas Poderosas: Women-driven Data Journalism in Latin America

Categories: Case Studies, Feature

To build and design news content for the whole population, not just 50%, we need to empower more women … Combining the power of new tools and approaches to news gathering with the strengths women offer in communication and storytelling, newsrooms will be able to fully engage today’s demanding, tech-savvy news consumers.

It seems obvious… the only question is why hasn't it happened before?

944723_541858919183883_1206822092_n Chicas Poderosas [1]is a new project founded by Mariana Santos [2], a Knight International Journalism Fellow [3]Chicas Poderosas plans to create a network and build skills, through events and training to bring more woman into news rooms. They aim to create a new tradition of visual storytelling with data driven journalism, with women at the forefront.

Mariana says,

In Latin America the ever-growing data driven investigative journalism is reaching amazing results in terms of content, [but] what I see lacking is the capability to transform this content in an efficient form of communication with the audiences… [ we need] to convert those stories into consumable content for the broader audience, not only data experts.

1002766_10152989080625051_1266853995_nChicas Poderosas [4] means to do this by engaging women in the process: journalists, digital designers, software developers, project managers, storytellers, animators…

Chicas Poderosas will show women how to create data-driven stories, scrape and use data, and create compelling narratives using visual storytelling techniques and multi media. Introduce the process of project management, working relationships, presentation and preparation for pitchs or interviews, providing them with full gear to succeed in their paths.

This project is supported by the Knight Foundation [5] and the International Center for Jounralists [6] (ICFJ). The fellowship program is “designed to instill a culture of news innovation and experimentation worldwide, and to seed new ideas and services that deepen coverage, expand news delivery and engage citizens in the editorial process.”

Events are upcoming in Costa Rica and Colombia, with many more to come (organised via their Meetup site [7]), and are actively publicized via their website [8], Facebook page [9], and on Twitter @poderosaschicas [10] and through the hashtag #chicaspoderosas. If you’re in Latin America, watch for one of their events!

Mariana wrote us a post about her inspiration and story behind the founding of the project – you can find it on our blog [11].

All images are from the Chicas Poderosas Facebook page.