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Paul Bradshaw

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Featured Book

The Online Journalism Handbook: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Digital Age

The Online Journalism Handbook: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Digital Age

The leading guide to the fast-moving world of digital journalism

2017

Stories

Paul Bradshaw

·

Jul 9

Caught in a trap: what journalists can learn from systems thinking

One of the most powerful ways to generate original journalism is to look at the systems behind stories — particularly the points where…

System trap Journalism examples Policy resistance The war on drugs; reforms that fail; missed targets Overuse leading to shortages; climate change impacts; AI Tragedy of the commons Drift to low performance Normalisation of poor performance or low productivity Escalation Arms races; races to the bottom Success to the successful Increasing concentration of wealth or resources Shifting the burden to the intervenor Subsidies, price fixes and delaying the impact/cost of a policy Rule b

Paul Bradshaw

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Jun 11

How to: generate hundreds of maps by combining QGIS with Python (code included!)

There’s a new post over on the Online Journalism Blog based on a workshop I ran at this year’s European Investigative Journalism…

How to: generate hundreds of maps by combining QGIS with Python (code included!)

Paul Bradshaw

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Mar 4

Telling stories with data: more on the difference between ‘variation’ stories and ‘ranking’ angles

This post was first published on the Online Journalism Blog.

Telling stories with data: more on the difference between ‘variation’ stories and ‘ranking’ angles

Paul Bradshaw

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Feb 26

Parallel prompting: another way to avoiding deskilling with AI

This was first published on the Online Journalism Blog.

tracks

Paul Bradshaw

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Jan 15

How to ask AI to perform data analysis

In a previous post I explored how AI performed on data analysis tasks — and the importance of understanding the code that it used to do so…

Consider the model: Some models are better for analysis — check it has run code Name specific columns and functions: Be explicit to avoid ‘guesses’ based on your most probably meaning Design answers that include context: Ask for a top/bottom 10 instead of just one answer ‘Ground’ the analysis with other docs: Methodologies, data dictionaries, and other context Map out a method using CoT: Outline the steps needed to be taken to reduce risk Use prompt design techniques to avoid gullibility an

Paul Bradshaw

·

Jan 10

I tested AI tools on data analysis — here’s how they did (and what to look out for)

This was first published on the Online Journalism Blog. Subscribe at onlinejournalismblog.com for updates on new posts.

Mug with ‘Data or it didn’t happen’ on it

Paul Bradshaw

·

Dec 10, 2025

How to reduce the environmental impact of using AI

One of the biggest concerns over the use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT is their environmental impact. But what is that impact — and…

Generative AI: reducing environmental impact Disable AI or switch tool Compare AI vs non-AI Compare models Prompt planning Prompt design and templating Measuring and reviewing Run locally

Paul Bradshaw

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Dec 9, 2025

No, the explainer isn’t dead. It just needs a reason to live.

Cross posted from the Online Journalism Blog.

A collection of explainer headlines

Paul Bradshaw

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Dec 4, 2025

Why I’m no longer saying AI is “biased”

TLDR; Saying “AI has biases” or “biased training data” is preferable to “AI is biased” because it reduces the risk of anthropomorphism and…

Searches for “AI bias” peaked in 2025. In March 2025 twice as many searches were made for “AI bias” compared to 12 months before.

Paul Bradshaw

·

Dec 2, 2025

How do I get data if my country doesn’t publish any?

In many countries public data is limited, and access to data is either restricted, or information provided by the authorities is not…

Spotlight

Paul Bradshaw

Paul Bradshaw

he

Book Author

Data journalist at the BBC and hackademic at Birmingham City University. Author of the Online Journalism Handbook. Publisher, Online Journalism Blog

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