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![“Data-driven journalism is the future”
“[Journalism’s] going to be about poring over data
and equipping yourself with the tools to analyse it
and picking out what's interesting. And keeping it in
perspective, helping people out by really seeing
where it all fits together, and what's going on in the
country.”
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, 2010
9](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mac281datajournalismlecture2014-140428074539-phpapp01/75/Mac281-big-data-journalism-lecture-2014-9-2048.jpg)
Uploaded byRob Jewitt
Mac281 big data & journalism lecture 2014
This document discusses the emergence of data journalism and how journalists are using large datasets and data analysis tools to uncover stories and insights. It provides an overview of the history of database journalism and computer-assisted reporting dating back to the 1950s. It also highlights more recent examples where journalists have used mapping, data visualization, and interactive tools to explore and explain different datasets. The document suggests data-driven journalism will be an important growth area for the profession in the future.
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Mac281 big data & journalism lecture 2014
- 1. Big Data &Journalism MAC281 twitter/rob_jewitt robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk 1
- 2. 2009 #iranelection Image: GiladLotan, ReTweet Revolution 2
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- 4. Overview Intro DatabaseJournalism and Computer Assisted Reporting Data Today : Visualisations and Interactivity How To Be A Data Journalist Ethics? 4
- 5. Recent hype DataJournalism Meta Journalism Visualisation Infographics Mash Ups 5
- 6. Adam Westbrook “Ithink data-driven journalism is one of the big potential growth areas in the future of journalism. A lot of the forward- thinking discussion about the future of news focuses on the ‘glamorous’ possibilities, like video journalism and interactivity, but I often see data journalism being ignored. In fact, I believe it is journalism in its truest essence: uncovering and mining through information the public do not have enough time to do themselves, interrogating it, and making sense of it before sharing it with the audience. If more journalists did this (rather than relying on ‘data’ from press releases) we would be a far more enlightened public. 6 Source link
- 7. Adam Westbrook Mymessage to the next generation of journalists - or any journalist looking for a new niche or direction - would be to learn the skills and tools of data interrogation. It’s not glamorous, but it’s a skill not many journalists have, and one which will give one an edge in the market.” 7 Source link
- 8. Brian Storm Oneof our big goals in the storytelling process is to humanize the statistics. It’s hard for people to care about numbers, especially large numbers. How do you get your head around the death of 800,000 people in the Rwandan genocide? I think if you meet the individuals - see and hear the stories of the survivors - you can gain a better insight into the tragedy. 8 Source link
- 9. “Data-driven journalism isthe future” “[Journalism’s] going to be about poring over data and equipping yourself with the tools to analyse it and picking out what's interesting. And keeping it in perspective, helping people out by really seeing where it all fits together, and what's going on in the country.” Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, 2010 9
- 10. Origins 1950s DatabaseJournalism Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR) Very expensive 10
- 11. 11 The Indianapolis Star CapitalJournal circa 1961
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- 13. CBS: 1952, WalterCronkite Presidential election battle Eisenhower vs Stevenson Remington Rand UNIVAC Early vote returns analysis Predicted a landslide victory Contrary to popular opinion 13
- 14. Philip Meyer, PrecisionJournalism 1969: a journalist must make use of databases and surveys 2002: “a journalist has to be a database manager” 14
- 15. Other notable examples Clarence Jones, The Miami Herald, 1969 Criminal Justice systems David Burnham, The New York Times, 1972 Police crime rates Elliot Jaspin, The Providence Journal, 1986 School bus drivers and criminal records Bill Dedman, The Atlanta Journal, 1988 Pullitzer Prize for The Color of Money 15
- 16. Not Database –Just Data? 16
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- 21. Adrian Holovaty (2005) Chicago Transport Authority map + Firefox plug-in + Google Maps = real time updates Chicago Police Department + Google Maps = real time police reports 21
- 22. Adrian Holovaty (2006) Now working for the Washington Post A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change Most material collected by journalists is: "structured information: the type of information that can be sliced-and-diced, in an automated fashion, by computers” 22
- 23. Adrian Holovaty (2006) Traditionaljournalism Articles as the finished product Data journalism Continually maintained and improved 23 Radical overhaul needed - Employing data - Making data available - Storing data - Coding data =✓=✗
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- 27. Maps Everywhere! 2007– Holovaty won $1.1 million from the Knight Foundation for Everyblock 2010 – SR2 Blog won Guardian.co.uk’s ‘most inspirational site’ accolade 27
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- 32. Interactivity Transport ForLondon API Icelandic Ash Cloud and plane tracking AlJazeera’s coverage of War on Gaza using Ushahidi Guardian’s Twitter map of Middle East BBC Interactive on the Spending Review 32
- 33. Bella Hurrell, SpecialsEditor with BBC News Online (2011) Proximity of “journalists, designers and developers all working together, sitting alongside each other” 33
- 34. Bella Hurrell, SpecialsEditor with BBC News Online (2011) “We have found that proximity really important to the success of projects. Although we have done this for a while, increasingly other organisations are reorganising along these lines after coming to realise the benefits of breaking down silos and co-locating people with different skillsets can produce more innovative solutions at a faster pace.” 34
- 35. Bella Hurrell, SpecialsEditor with BBC News Online (2011) “As data visualisation has come into the zeitgeist, and we have started using it more regularly in our story-telling, journalists and designers on the specials team have become much more proficient at using basic spreadsheet applications like Excel or Google Docs” 35
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- 37. Paul Bradshaw 37 “Itrepresents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right - from investigative research and statistics to design and programming. The idea of combining those skills to tell important stories is powerful - but also intimidating. Who can do all that?”
- 38. Paul Bradshaw 38 “Itrepresents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right - from investigative research and statistics to design and programming. The idea of combining those skills to tell important stories is powerful - but also intimidating. Who can do all that?” “The reality is that almost no one is doing all of that, but there are enough different parts of the puzzle for people to easily get involved in, and go from there”
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- 40. Dealing with Data(Bradshaw, 2010) 4 crucial aspects 40 1. Finding data 2. Interrogating data 3. Visualizing data 1. Mashing data
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- 45. Data visualisation vsdata journalism 45
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- 47. New Tools ofthe Trade? Analysis Excel or Calc sort your data Google Refine clean your dirty data Yahoo Pipes Composition mash-up tool ScraperWiki transforms info from webpages into data R Process and manipulate data Visualisation Google Fusion Tables visualise data on maps, timelines, etc Tableau Public Visualise and share IBM’s Many Eyes data visualisation tool Processing create images & interactives Wordle generate word clouds from bulky text 47
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- 51. Summary Is thisjournalism? Journalism educators doing students a disservice? Journalists replaced by programmers? Wikileaks: no journalist's required? 51
- 52. Links and furtherreading Simon Rogers (2013) Facts are Sacred, London: Faber & Faber http://www.delicious.com/rob_jewitt/med312+datajournalism http://www.delicious.com/smfrogers 52
- 53. 53 Images Knight Foundation,2008, Sir Tim Berners-Lee talking about the Web at the Newseum Bill on Capitol Hill, 2007, The Rim and the Slot Marion Doss, 2008, Capital Journalism News Room 16 October 1961 Igorschwarzmann, 2010, NYT News Room Mkandlez, 2009, The Billion Pound O Gram BitBoy, 2006, The Elephant in the Room Ravages, 2008, Links
- 54. Issues To whatextent is the traditional craft of storytelling being challenged by the emergence of big data? What kind of problems are manifest by the deluge of large data sets (eg MPs expenses, Wikileaks Iraq war logs, US cables, etc)? Can the use or release of big data sets have ethical implications? 54
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