Data Journalism Intern

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch seeks a detail-oriented student journalist for a 12-week summer data reporting internship.   The intern's primary responsibility will be to help produce our annual "Public Pay" database. You will obtain public employee salary data by making or following up on records requests with dozens of agencies, then clean the often-messy data and prepare it for publication. Along the way, you will analyze the data, looking for trends or outliers that could drive stories. You will also have opportunities to work on daily or weekly news stories.   Candidates must be adept at using spreadsheets, and be comfortable talking with public officials. There will be a lot to keep track of, so solid organizational skills and news judgment are a must. Experience with a scripting language such as Python or R, or familiarity with using command-line tools like csvkit, are preferred but not required.