Congratulations to Peter Aldhous and Charles Seife of Buzzfeed News, winners of the 2016 Data Journalism Award for Data Visualization of the Year. They were recognized by their reporting for Spies in the Sky, which analyzed FAA air traffic records to visulize the domestic surveillance activities of the US government.

Aldhouse and Seife used the R language to create the visualiations, so this award is a testament both to their top-notch reporting skills and the flexibility of the R language to process an unusual and complex data source, and then render the results into a compelling visual studio. Kudos.

Simon Roger reviewed the DJA award winners and also offered his commendations:

Buzzfeed’s Peter Aldhous and Charles Seife won the prize for dataviz of the year for their project on light aircraft/helicopter surveillance over America, Spies in the Skies. The judges said it was a “fantastic example of the layers and depth that only visualization can bring to a story”. It works because it’s more than just beautiful visuals — it adds another dimension to the story and makes it stronger. It’s also not a standalone visual, but part of a much bigger piece of work reporting the issue in forensic detail.

To see the complete list of awardees, follow the link below.

GEN: Data Journalism Awards 2016 (via Alberto Cairo)