This article is part of RJI Impact, a series documenting how RJI projects are making a real difference for newsrooms and audiences all over the country. It was originally published in the Winter 2026 edition of RJI Insight, RJI’s biannual print magazine. A digital version of the magazine is available here.

Presenting data stories in fresh ways can make them more memorable and engaging, but finding time to develop new storytelling practices is difficult when reporters are already stretched thin.

That’s where training resources like those developed by RJI Fellows come in. For her 2024-2025 RJI Fellowship, Aura Walmer developed a toolkit to help journalists tell data stories through audio — an approach known as data sonification.

Gulf States Newsroom radio reporter Drew Hawkins got the spark to tell a story about local temperature data through audio by attending one of Aura Walmer’s presentations. A session description for her data sonification workshop caught his attention at the 2025 Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference in New Orleans. Hawkins wasn’t very familiar with the technique, but he decided to attend.

“I was super excited because of the way she walked through what sonification is, the examples she used and how it can be used for different types of data to really make it resonate,” said Hawkins.

With Walmer’s guidance, Hawkins worked with local brass band Bettis + 3rd Degree to translate data about rising temperatures in New Orleans into sound.

The story aired locally and nationally on NPR and audience feedback indicates that telling this data story through sound worked.

Listener Kaitlyn Trudeau wrote to Hawkins to say that she shared it with a friend who doesn’t typically follow climate news. The sonified data caught their attention.

“It helped something click in a way nothing else has,” Trudeau said. “It’s a true testament to the power of great storytelling.”

The Data Sonification Toolkit provides a starting point for journalists like Hawkins to try sonic data storytelling. These audio stories can elicit emotion and curiosity, helping audiences make meaning out of complex data.

The RJI Fellowship gave Walmer the funding and support to turn her knowledge into a guide and workshop. Building on her background indata science and information design and work at the Georgia Tech Sonification Lab, Walmer came to RJI to refine her methods, document best practices, and share them with the field.