Analytic Journalism: Digital Evolution in the Datasphere

"Analytic Journalism: Digital Evolution in the Datasphere" Tom Johnson Managing Director Inst. for Analytic Journalism Santa Fe, New Mexico USA [email_address]

Presentation to the
South African National Editors Forum
22 November 2010
Johannesburg, South Africa

Today’s conversation
Journalism past [briefly] and present
What is Analytic Journalism
Where we think journalism is (should be?) heading

What’s Changed in Journalism?
Old: “News” = spoken word, text, images
Today: “News” = Data = 1s & 0s
Global ubiquity and fluidity of data
5 billion cell phones [July ’10]
Africa: 1/3 pop. have cell phones
Metadata
Editors  Database administrators
Is the Mass Media dead?

Datasphere Basic Process:
Data In  Analysis  Info Out
Former “basic process”
Superficial research
Gather anecdotes & quotes & AV
Write , i.e. String together in “acceptable form”
Publish/broadcast soonest
Do it again tomorrow

What’s Changed in Journalism
Industrial Age Journalism
High capital investment: presses, paper, delivery, broadcasting equipment
Low investment in “wet ware,” i.e. employees and their skills
Digital Age Journalism
Low capital threshold for data, analytic tools, “publishing”
High educational threshold for data, analytic tools, “publishing”
Power shift from authority and institutional power to sub-groups and individuals

Constant deadlines, but …
Breaking news has already broken
If people already have the “news,” what do we have to contribute?

What is “Analytic Journalism”
Traditional Journalism
Quick & Dirty research
Gather quotes
Harvest anecdotes
Get some video
String together in a 30, 60, 90-sec story
Repeat tomorrow
Analytic Journalism
Not events, but context & trends
Define phenomena of interest as a SYSTEM
Employ RRAW-P process Research  Reporting  Analysis  Write  ‟Publish”
Non-traditional analytic tools: GIS, data mining, forensic accounting, Social Network Analysis

Cornerstones of IAJ
General Systems Theory
Statistics
Data visualization
- www.niceone.org/lab/refugees /
Simulations
- Simtable Fire Model
St. Marks Square
Venice boats
Zozobra park

Cornerstones: IAJ version of Analytic Journalism
General Systems Theory
System boundaries
Variables
Relationships between variables
System has goals
System capable of “learning”
System exists in an environment
“ System” can be self defined; can be defined by outside observer(s)
System is “scaleable”

Newspaper as a system

Theory of Journalistic Process Data In  Analysis  Info Out

Theory. It’s important, valuable. Data In  Analysis  Info Out
Notes
Text
Numeric
Images
Charts/Graphs
Maps
Audio
Video
Atoms  Bits
How? Who?

Notes
Text
Numeric
Images
Charts/Graphs
Maps
Audio
Video
Atoms  Bits How? Who?
What are we looking for? How can we be surprised?
Source
Definition
Context
Estimating
Counting
Statistical
Geostatistical
Social Network Analysis
Forensic accounting

Notes
Text
Numeric
Images
Charts/Graphs
Maps
Audio
Video
Atoms  Bits How?
Source
Definition
Context
Estimating
Counting
Statistical
Geostatistical
Forensic accounting
Broadcast
Web
Audio
Video
Text
Data visualization
Maps
Dynamic databases
Archives

Notes
Text
Numeric
Images
Charts/Graphs
Maps
Audio
Video
Atoms  Bits How?
Source
Definition
Context
Estimating
Counting
Statistical
Geostatistical
Forensic accounting
Broadcast
Web
Audio
Video
Text
Data visualization
Maps
Dynamic databases
Archives
Contributed content Contributed content & analysis

Developing Tools for Collaboration
Who is using wikis? Google Docs? Zoho?
Intra-nets
Inter- and intra-nets

Goals for Journalism Education
Raise basic admission standards
Applicants already can write; can do basic arithmetic
Develop/improve tools for newsroom and citizen journalism collaboration
Intranets
Wikis
Google Docs
Blogs, social media, Flickr, etc.
Research customization for journalism
Develop tools for story telling

Community & Collaboration
Citizen Journalism and Democracy in Africa: “Periodismo Ciudadano y Democracia en África”: Un libro en línea de Fackson Banda
UK: The Guardian uses the citizen journalist to great effect in Expenses Scandal
Investigate your MP’s expenses
Oldweather.org Oldweather.org
NYTimes Knowledge Network El New York Times ofrece un curso online de periodismo ciudadano

Online learning; online tools
ICFJ Anywhere Global source for high-quality, online journalism courses taught by seasoned professionals.
Google Refine Google Refine is a power tool for working with messy data, cleaning it up, transforming it from one format into another, extending it with web services, and linking it to databases like Freebase .
Many Eyes S ite is set up to allow the internet community to upload data, visualize it, and talk about their discoveries with other people.

Storytelling R&D? Innovation?

Storytelling R&D? Innovation?
Potential for “drill-down” dynamics
Reach URLs
Show data for statistical analysis
Ask questions; capture answers

Tomorrow?
Our job is to “monitor the centres of power.” -- Amira Haassaid

Tomorrow?
In a democracy, news media harvest data; become central warehouse of citizen’s data
A “public library” on steroids
Digital resources for in-house journalists
Create “ dashboards ” to monitor gov’t.
Potential to create specialized, non-journalism “products”
Provide data to app creators

Tomorrow?
Paying for news rapidly declining market.
So what can journalists offer?

"Analytic Journalism: Digital Evolution in the Datasphere" Tom Johnson Managing Director Inst. for Analytic Journalism Santa Fe, New Mexico USA [email_address]

Theory. It’s important, it’s valuable. Nothing is as valuable as a good theory.

Analytic Journalism: Digital Evolution in the Datasphere

by J T "Tom" Johnson on Nov 23, 2010

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Analytic Journalism: Digital Evolution in the Datasphere — Presentation Transcript