Imagine knowing exactly which film genre will capture audiences’ attention or understanding social media trends before they go viral. Data analysis makes this possible.

From the experts at the Communications University of China (CUC), this seven-week course explores the key aspects of big data and helps you develop practical, career-ready skills to analyse, mine, and visualise media data effectively.

Build a foundation in big data and data mining

You’ll kick off this course by understanding what big data is all about. You’ll learn its core concepts, development trends within the media industry, and gain insights into its evolving applications.

You’ll then explore data mining processes and discover how big data is transforming fields such as data journalism and media analysis.

Master data acquisition techniques, from data scraping tools to APIs

Once you’ve laid these foundations, you’ll dive into data scraping techniques, including HTML, regular expressions, and tools like Gooseeker and Python.

You’ll also learn how to leverage APIs for efficient data acquisition and integration across platforms.

Develop text and network analysis skills

Next, you’ll extract insights from content with tokenization, keyword extraction, and sentiment analysis.

Plus, you’ll gain essential skills in network analysis, learning how to map and interpret social networks, relationships, and the flow of information across digital platforms.

Present insights with data visualisation

On the final weeks of this course, you’ll learn to transform raw data into clear, compelling visual stories using tools like Tableau and Echart.

Through hands-on practice and industry-relevant case studies, you’ll quickly master these techniques and be able to effectively communicate your insights to diverse audiences.