FiveThirtyEight has been named Data Journalism Website of the Year at the 2016 Data Journalism Awards, which honors exceptional work in data journalism. The annual competition is organized by the Global Editors Network, which promotes innovation in newsrooms around the world. All winners were announced today in Vienna, Austria, during the sixth annual GEN Summit.
Additionally, FiveThirtyEight was awarded News Data App of the Year (large newsroom) for "Swing the Election," an interactive project created by Aaron Bycoffe and David Wasserman.
The site was a finalist in the following categories:
"A Plagiarism
SCANDAL Is Unfolding In The Crossword World," by Ollie Roeder for Investigation of the Year (large newsroom).
"Measuring Justice Scalia's Tenure," by Ben Morris, Ollie Roeder and Harry Enten for Best Use of Data in a Breaking News Story (within first 36 hours).
In their award citation, the judges said this about FiveThirtyEight: "Over the past year, in this increasingly competitive environment, FiveThirtyEight stood out. The site produced statistically sophisticated articles on themes ranging from politics and racism to sports and crossword-puzzle scandals. Its data visualizations elegantly depict each story's central message. And when its work came under fire, it had the courage to acknowledge the debate and occasionally concede the possibility of alternative views and even errors. There were many great data journalism sites last year but FiveThirtyEight led the pack."
Managing editor David Firestone said the award was a tribute to the staff of FiveThirtyEight and the innovation that it has pioneered. "Given the growth in our field, and the great work being done in data journalism around the world, it was a particular honor to be recognized by the Global Editors Network," he said.
The Data Journalism Awards, which were started by the editors group in 2012, attracted 471 entries this year from newspapers, magazines and websites around the world. Among the news organizations submitting entries this year were the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Die Zeit Online and Le Monde.
The president of the jury that made the awards is Paul Steiger, executive chairman of ProPublica. The awards are sponsored by the Knight Foundation and the Google News Lab.
FiveThirtyEight, which launched as an
ESPN entity in 2014, is a data journalism organization delivering compelling stories across the verticals of politics, economy, science, life and sports. The site, founded by award-winning author and statistician Nate Silver, first gained national attention during the 2008 presidential election, when it correctly predicted the results of the presidential election in 49 of 50 states, along with all 35 U.S. Senate races. Since its debut at ESPN, FiveThirtyEight has built a team with a broad set of skills and experiences in order to apply statistical analysis, data visualization, and data-literate reporting to topics in the news and in everyday life.
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