If you search for “hacker” on Google, you will most likely come across images of people with hoodies, sitting in dark corners working on something that is probably illegal. After participating in a 24-hour hackathon (hacking + marathon), with the aim of solving a difficult data problem, I can assure you that this doesn’t come close to what I experienced. I am a PhD student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. My research focuses mainly on news diversity: finding out what kind