Open Data and their use in Czech Data Journalism

The fundamental source of data journalism, which has established itself in the Czech media landscape in recent years, is the availability of usable data sets. However, academicians have so far neglected the topic of data openness and its importance in journalistic discourse. Simultaneously, data journalists are often the first to make data available to the public. An integral part of the thesis is mapping the historical development of data journalism, including the phenomenon of open government with a focus on Czech and European legislation and obtaining information with the help of the Freedom of Information Act. The aim of the thesis is, based on in-depth interviews with Czech data journalists, to identify the data sources which they frequently often use in their editorial routines, to evaluate the quality of these sources and to present the main limits that journalists encounter. In the conclusive part of the thesis the author transfers the focus to analysis of the availability of data sources provided by the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Health Information and Statistics during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and outlines the process of acquisition, cleaning, analysis, and visualization of information by journalists