ISOJ 2015

1. Data Journalism:
An Explication
Cindy Royal, Associate Professor - @cindyroyal
Dale Blasingame, Lecturer - @daleblasingame
Texas State University

2. Data Journalism: An Explication
What is Data Journalism?
 Process or Product?
 Roles or Skills?
 Who does it affect?
 Is it really anything new at all?
 All of the above

3. Data Journalism: An Explication
Method
 Concept explication with grounded theory
 Identification of sources
 Identification of assertions
 Word frequency analysis
 Coding of dimensions
 Development of conceptual definition

4. Data Journalism: An Explication
Video Interviews

5. Data Journalism: An Explication

6. Data Journalism: An Explication

7. Data Journalism: An Explication

8. Data Journalism: An Explication
Process
 [Data journalism is] “a reporting process that uses
spreadsheet programs to generate statistics from public
records and data sets" (Hackett, 2013)
 [Data journalism is] “the aggregating, filtering, and
visualizing of large sets of data, based on statistical methods
of data analysis” (Dreyfus, S., Lederman, R., & Bosua, R.,
2011).
 "I would say data journalism is such a wide range now of styles
- from visualisation to long form articles. The key thing they
have in common is that they're based on numbers and statistics
- and that they should aim to get a 'story' from that data. The
ultimate display of that story, be it words or graphics, is
irrelevant, I think - it's more about the process" (Rogers,
2012).

9. Data Journalism: An Explication
Product
 “Data journalism can help a journalist tell a complex
story through engaging infographics” (Gray, J.,
Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).
 “Data journalism — interactives, infographics,
charts and tables — were tapped to convey factual
aspects like historical timelines and status of gun
control policy” (Xie, 2013).
 “Some stories are just better told as databases and
interactive web apps” (Betancourt, 2009).

10. Data Journalism: An Explication
Convergence of Fields
 “Data journalism is ‘incomprehensibly enormous,’ in part
because it represents the convergence of several fields —
programming, design, statistics and investigative
research, to name a few” (Bradshaw, 2010).
 “In the hands of the most advanced practitioners, data
journalism is a powerful tool that integrates computer science,
statistics, and decades of learning from the social
sciences in making sense of huge databases” (Howard, Art
and Sciences, 2014).
 “Data journalism is currently an emerging form of storytelling,
where traditional journalistic working methods are mixed with
data analysis, programming and visualization techniques”
(Appelgren & Nygren, 2014).

11. Data Journalism: An Explication
Traditional
 “Data journalism and its practice are not new, along with
existing critiques of its practices or of programming in
journalism generally “(Howard, Debugging the Backlash, 2014).
 “One of the editors points out that analyzing data is not in
itself something new for journalists, however, the new tools
that are currently available speed up the process of working
with large data sets” (Appelgren, E., & Nygren, G., 2014)
 "What makes data journalism different to the rest of journalism?
Perhaps it is the new possibilities that open up when you
combine the traditional ‘nose for news’ and ability to tell a
compelling story, with the sheer scale and range of digital
information now available” (Gray, J., Bounegru, L., &
Chambers, L., 2012).

12. Data Journalism: An Explication
Outside Influence
 “It can help explain how a story relates to an individual”
(Gray, J., Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).
 "Data-driven journalism” improves the way journalism can
contribute to democracy – especially at a time when a
growing number of data sets are released by governments"
(Parasie & Dagiral, 2013).
 “After all, programming and data are journalism. And it can be
practiced in such a way that it can create interaction, user
engagement, and more information in terms of seeking the
truth. Especially when you talk about Freedom of Information
access to government data — if the public can have access
to that in a way that makes sense to them, or in a way that’s
easy for them to use, then that’s just really powerful” (Royal in
Garber, 2010).

13. Data Journalism: An Explication
Skills
 “I think schools are making a better effort to train young
journalists in many of the skills that fall under the umbrella of
data journalism: data wrangling, analysis, visualization;
statistics; digital literacy (how does the Web work?); Web
development” (Howard, Profile of the Data Journalist, 2014).
 Data journalism is a new set of skills for searching,
understanding and visualizing digital sources in a time that
basic skills from traditional journalism just aren’t enough (Gray,
J., Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).
 "Emergence of a new generation of web-based technologies
that have made the presentation and visualization of data-
driven stories easy even for those with no database or web
development experience" (Vallance-Jones, F., 2013).

14. Data Journalism: An Explication
Hybrid
 “Data journalism is bridging the gap between stat
technicians and wordsmiths, locating outliers and
identifying trends that are not just statistically
significant, but relevant to de-compiling the inherently
complex world of today.” (Gray, J., Bounegru, L., &
Chambers, L., 2012).
 “Sourcing, reporting and presenting stories
through data-driven journalism, and visualising and
presenting data (including databases, mapping and
other interactive graphics)" (Arthur, 2010).

15. Data Journalism: An Explication
Comprehensive Definition
Data journalism is a process by which analysis and presentation of data
are employed to better inform and engage the public. Its roots are in the
fields of computer-assisted and investigative reporting, but data
journalism products may add engagement through customization and
user contribution made possible by Web development and programming
techniques.