Data visualisation contest to launch for aspiring journalists

A contest is to be launched which will give aspiring journalists a chance to have a data visualisation published on the Trinity Mirror-owned data journalism site Ampp3d.

Ampp3d, which focuses on social sharing of its content, was launched by Trinity Mirror late last year, in a follow-up to another digital-only experiment UsVsTh3m.

The competition is being run by Ampp3d in partnership with the Interhacktives website, led by site editor Sarah Spickernell, along with other students on City University London's interactive journalism masters course.

As part of the competition, entrants need to "produce a mobile-friendly data visualisation", Spickernell explained.

"All the statistics indicate people are increasingly moving away from desktop to mobile in the way they consume news," she said, but added that "not many data visualisations are very specific for mobile".

The hope is that the competition will help to "look forward and shift that over towards mobile".

Martin Belam, editor of new formats at Trinity Mirror, said Ampp3d is "very keen to encourage a new generation of journalists to get themselves familiar with the skills needed for visual digital storytelling".

"And especially for mobile devices. One of our most pressing design challenges at Ampp3d is how to present complex information in a way that can be easily read and understood on small-screen devices, which the majority of our users are accessing our content on.

"We’re looking forward to seeing a range of ideas and entries, and, as well as the winner, hopefully commissioning some of the runners-up to contribute to the site in the future as well".

Entrants should email their data visualisations as a link to interhacktives@gmail.com between Monday 17 March and Friday 18 April.

The winner will receive a cash prize of £100, and their visualisation will be published on Ampp3d.

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