making data journalism work

Making the most of data journalism

Paul BradshawOxford, June 2012

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1967

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https://vimeo.com/5337314Thursday, 21 June 2012

2005

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“Each weekday, my computer program goes to the Chicago Police Department's website and gathers all crimes reported in Chicago.”

Adrian Holovaty

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Opening up data

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2012?

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Themes

• What just happened? 1967-2012• From data to knowledge: the data

journalism process• Pitfalls and preparation

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What just happened?

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“The Tribune’s more than three dozen interactive databases, collectively have drawn three times as many page views as the site’s stories. [75% of traffic]”

http://bit.ly/dj2dmz

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Times film genres

digitised? = data

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the process

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Start with the data and look for the stories? (MPs’ expenses)Or start with a lead and look for the data?

Passive vs active data journalism

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Official sources: ONS, data.gov.uk, etc.Secondary FOI: disclosure logs, WDTK, HansardReports and research: Google alertsUnofficial sources: Scraperwiki, OpenlyLocal, OpenCorporates, OpenCharities, etc.

Compile: Reactive

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Communities, mailing lists, groupsAdvanced search: Site:gov.uk (etc), Filetype:pdf (etc) Tip: database contents are invisibleScrapers - tools, write or ask

Compile: Proactive

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Start with a question

How does policy affect people? Who is top? Bottom?Time: what has happened since last year? 10 years ago? Space: Trends in fields/regions?What is the context?

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=ImportHTML("http://bob.com/mytable", "table", 1)=ImportXML("http://backtweets.com/search.xml?itemsperpage=100&...”)=ImportFeed("http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?rpp=20&page=1&q="&A2)

Spreadsheet formulae

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Data health

warning!

Pitfalls and preparation

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Image by Lauren York on the Data Journalism Blog

http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2012/04/19/when-data-goes-bad/Thursday, 21 June 2012

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http://delicious.com/paulb/benfordslawThursday, 21 June 2012

http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/trifecta-checkup/

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Porn, tampons and duck houses

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Make it socialThursday, 21 June 2012

Tools

Google Docs or Excel - spreadsheets, charts and fusion tables Google Refine - simple, powerful data cleaning and mixingManyEyes, Tableau - visualisationfreeDive - create a searchable database for usersOutwit Hub - simple scrapingScraperwiki - learn programming!

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Websites

National statistics and govt department releasesLocal and global open data initiativesFlowingData, Information is BeautifulGuardian Datablog, EagereyesJunkcharts, WSJ’s Numbers Guy; BBC’s More Or Less

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Books

Bradshaw & Rohumaa - Online Journalism HandbookEJC - Data Journalism HandbookDarrell Huff - How To Lie With Statistics Blastland & Dilnot - The Tiger That Isn'tDonna Wong - The WSJ Guide to Information GraphicsBrian Suda - A Practical Guide to Designing with Data

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...but the most important thing: PLAY.

Be curious. Start with a question, not a technical challenge.Pick up the phone. Ask experts where to get information, what jargon is used, etcIf the challenge is too complex, do something more simple Join communities, listen, and ask for help.

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Questions?Thursday, 21 June 2012

Links at delicious.com/paulb/anox2012@paulbradshaw

onlinejournalismblog.comhelpmeinvestigate.com

slideshare.net/onlinejournalistlinkedin.com/in/onlinejournalist

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