NODA Awards has grown to be biggest and most prestigious inter-Nordic journalistic competition for investigative, feature and applied reporting. More than 50 entries at NODA18.se constitutes the interest and importance for newsrooms to show the qualities and learn from each other cross borders and cross company entities.

Tormod Utne, former journalist and editor in Norwegian news outlets as Nettavisen and Sunnmørsposten and now lecturer and researcher at the Volda J-school, has taken upon the task to lead the jury nominating finalists and the winners of the NODA Awards.

Tormod Utne will be joined by distinguished mediapeople and academics in all the Nordic countries when the full jury is to be announced.

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING – Pulitzer winner Michael Braga was awarded for his journalism to unveil escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals in 2016. He won the prize also for “a stellar collaborative reporting by two news organization” as the prize was won for his cooperation with two journalists in Tampa Bay Times.

This was not the first time he was nominated to Americas most prestigious journalist award. In 2010 Michael Braga and two colleagues was nominated for their indepth reporting and computer analysis that unraveled $10 billion in suspicious Florida real estate transactions, triggering local and state efforts to curb abuses.

He is now the investigative editor in the 90 000 circulation metro-daily newspaper Sarasota Herald Tribune.

He brings with him his skills and wits in investigative reporting to the Nordic Data Journalism Conference 2019.

ALGORITHMS ANALYSIS – Algorithms characterize almost all parts of existence in our internet-based era. Algorithms can affect what news or information we are presented with, what movies we want to see and many other choices both in everyday life and maybe even how power is distributed and democracies work.

These are questions Bente Kalsnes and Lene Pettersen asks in their call for papers on the impact algorithms, automation and analysis data have in the digital media landscape.

The journalistic work processes are all affected by algoritms. Media production (how content – everything from news to cultural expressions like movies, music and other types of content – is produced), media content (what content is being produced), media distribution (how different types of content are distributed and disseminated) and mediaconsume (types of content are consumed by users).

Bente will present some of their findings at the Academic Track at the Preconference Day January 29th.

FACT-CHECKING – Kristoffer Egeberg was asked to head the fact checking site Faktisk.no when the leading Norwegian publishers set up their ideal and independent organization in 2017. Since then, Faktisk.no has fought back most of the skepticism and critic, also from press colleagues. Nowadays the former Norwegian army officer and international awarded investigative reporter may be happy to see that practically all legacy media has joined his ranks. Faktisk.no is seen as an important contributor to an improved public debate and the debunking of incorrect and false news.

Noda19 will include fact-checking and the important work to increase trust to media in it’s workflow. Faktisk.no staff and Kristoffer will give competence courses at NODA and contribute to the conference programme.