Ron Nixon, Washington correspondent for The New York Times, offers tips on getting started with data journalism. This handout provides links to many online databases for beats including sports, business, campaign finance, health and education. It accompanies a presentation, "Data Journalism 101," that he gave at Philadelphia NewsTrain Nov. 13-14, 2015. It was also distributed at Lexington NewsTrain on Jan. 21, 2016, to accompany a presentation by Linda J. Johnson on "Data-Driven Enterprise off Your Beat." NewsTrain is a training initiative of Associated Press Media Editors. More info: http://bit.ly/NewsTrain

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Data-driven enterprise off your beat
Ron Nixon, The New York Times | Nixon@nytimes.com | @nixonron
Getting started in data journalism
1 – Convince a buddy to teach you Excel. It’s a powerful tool that is easily
mastered.
2 – Start small. A guaranteed success will impress your editors and
readers/viewers and convince you that this is doable.
3 – Master one tool at a time. Don’t think you need to learn everything at
once. Some data journalists use only Excel, period.
4 – Use Excel often. To keep fresh, track FOIAs, your Rolodex, passwords,
recipes. It isn’t a bicycle – you will lose it if you don’t use it.
5 – Join Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE). As a member ($70
annually/$25 for students), you have access to thousands of how-to tip sheets,
practice datasets, training opportunities, clean datasets and Listservs.
http://ire.org/membership/
Why you need data
1 – In this new media climate, you have to be able to do more than interview and
write a story. Data journalism is another area that sets you apart from the
pack.
2 – Find trends no one else can spot.
3 – Spot anomalies.
4 – Data is defensible. Numbers typically don’t lie and help hold the powerful
accountable.
5 – It adds depth and texture in a way that an anecdote never could. It also
makes you sometimes smarter than the government agency collecting the
data because agency officials never analyze it.
How to find it
1 – Get record-retention schedules from the agencies you cover.

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2 – Read what other journalists have written on the topic – especially look
for the how-to geek boxes.
3 – Ask the agency. How do you track ______?
4 – See below.
Data galore by beat
Slam-dunk data on any beat
 Inspection reports: nursing homes, taxi cabs, amusement-park rides,
stadium food
 Licensing: nurses, massage therapists, mortgage brokers, food trucks
 Disciplinary actions: teachers, doctors, lawyers, coaches
 Complaints
 Property records: slumlords, foreclosures
Sports
 Minor league baseball: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/
 College athletic department salaries. See USA Today for top coaches’
salaries in football: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/salaries/
and basketball:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/salaries/ncaab/coach/
 Major NCAA infractions:
https://web1.ncaa.org/LSDBi/exec/miSearch
 Academic progress rates for college athletes:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/academic-progress-rate-
apr
 High school participation rates:
http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/
Health
 Vaccinations
 Nursing Home Compare:
http://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/?AspxAutoDetectCookie
Support=1
 MAUDE (Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience
Database): a database of problems with medical devices that can be used
to find death and injuries. FDA has it online, and it can be purchased from
IRE.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfmaude/search.cfm

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Business
 Consumer complaints
 Sheriff’s sales
 Business licenses
 Local and state contracts
 U.S. Department of Labor data from the Employee Benefits Security
Administration (penalties), Mine Safety and Health Administration
(inspections, violations, and accidents), Office of Federal Contract
Compliance Programs (compliance evaluations and compliant
investigations of federal contractors), Occupational Health and Safety
Administration (inspections and penalties, accident investigations) and
Wage and Hour Division (violations)
http://ogesdw.dol.gov/views/data_catalogs.php
Local government
 Housing-code violations
 Parking tickets
 Time sheets
 Staff salaries
Campaign finance
 Open Secrets: The Center for Responsible Politics excellent site for
federal contributions data: https://www.opensecrets.org/
 The National Institute on Money in State Politics: Nonprofit group
that provides access to campaign-finance data from all 50 states:
http://www.followthemoney.org/
 Federal Communications Commission searchable website of
political-ad spending from local TV stations’ public-inspection files:
https://stations.fcc.gov/
Education
 Campus crime 2001-2013: http://ope.ed.gov/Security/, or you can buy
clean data from IRE for $25 (member) or $75 (non-member):
http://www.ire.org/nicar/database-library/databases/doe-campus-crime/
 State Department of Education
 School board contracts,
 School board staff salaries,
 School board purchase data.

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Cops and courts
 Jail-booking data: Stories – domestic violence, immigration, drunk
drivers
 Sex offenders
The arts and nonprofits
 Guidestar for nonprofits’ IRS Form 990 or tax return (NTEE codes –
A60 performing arts): http://www.guidestar.org/
 Youth sports, booster clubs: http://www.guidestar.org/
Features
 Dog licenses: popular breeds/names, location of pitbulls, private phone
numbers
 U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features:
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features.html
Need more ideas?
Here are 60 from data journalists Mary Jo Webster and Jodi Upton. They put
together this presentation for the NICAR/IRE conferences in 2014. It’s rich with
ideas: http://goo.gl/9EKDfz
Tutorial: Databases of Statistical Information is a smorgasbord of links to
data on different subjects including religion, transportation, sports, housing,
migration, health, workplace injuries, fire safety, agriculture, Census and more:
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/databases-of-statistical-
information/ Compiled by kdmcBerkeley