Using data in story telling Ghana elections 2016 @penplusbytes as part of USA Embassy Ghana funded data journalism training for Ghanian journalists with EIB Network

1. Using Data in StoryTelling
Project Work

2. Storytelling using data
Find election results from Electoral Commission
Find population of each region from Ghana
Statistical service
Figure out voting patterns from 2000 – 2012
Find out which region proves the winning
candidate for elections

3. Data Sources
• Electoral Commission: previous election results, registered
voters, swing constituencies, period (4 consecutive elections
2000, 2004, 2008 & 2012)
• CSOs, intl. observers (expert sources): election reports,
• Ghana Statistical Service: regional population breakdown,
qualified voters – people 18+ yrs, gender, working population
• Political Parties (expert sources): election reports,
FOCUS ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS

4. • Comparisons, trends, patterns, percentages
COMPARISONS:
1. Number of qualified voters (GSS) vrs registered voters (EC)
2. Newly registered voters vrs previous election year
TRENDS:
1. Voter turnout since 2000 – 2012
2. Regional election results
Interrogation

5. Taking what we need only and
disregarding what we don’t need
Cleaning Data

6. Make editorial judgement supported by data
Does this result come out of the data collected?
Will this be a trend in subsequent elections?
Results and Analysis

7. Determine best way to present the results
Use political party colors to express nature of regional trend
Figure out which visuals work best for your audience
Visualization of the Results

8. Which Region is Influential in
Determining Presidential Candidate

9. 1. Votes for each region for the 2 political parties
2. What regions are of interest to your team
3. What is the voting outcome over the 2 consecutive elections
ANALYSIS:
1.What party wins for each region?
2. Did party win general elections?
3.What is the voting pattern year-on-year?
4. Does this pattern change or recur year-on-year?
5.Visualize this data
Figure out: