lincoln journalism research day - data journalism
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TRANSCRIPT
Data JournalismHaving Conversations with Data
Tony HirstComputing and Communications
The Open University
What is journalism?
[sensemaking]
Inve
rted
Pyr
amid
What is data?
[a particular type of source]
Data is just another type of
source…
What is data journalism?
Data journalism is investigative
Journalism that uses data as one
of the sources
(We don’t have to produce a map or a chart in the
final piece)
The practice of data journalism
1find stories
2tell stories
1find stories
where’s the data?
what’s the data?
Ansc
ombe
’s Q
uart
et
THE BLOCKERS
ReadingChartsBl
ocke
r
“Data points are just words, but when connected with a squiggly line they tell a story”
Christopher Brown, “Making Sense of Squiggly Lines”, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9832593-1-2
“Conversations with data”
ouseful.info - A Wrangling Example With OpenRefine: Making “Oven Ready Data”
THE BLOCKERS
SkillsBl
ocke
r
Tidying data
Know
Thy
Too
ls…
Data DistributionsIBM Many Eyes
Outliers
Inve
rted
Pyr
amid
Data can confirm what we think we
know
Data can surprise us and force us to rethink what we think we know
Trends and (anti)correlations...
Data makes most sense
when contextualised
THE BLOCKERS
SkillsBl
ocke
r
[statistics]
(the art of looking at one number in the context of other numbers)
Asking Questions of Data
Data DistributionsIBM Many Eyes
Outliers
We need to teach people how to ask questions
We need to teach people how to
read charts
SQL
SQL was developed as a
navigational aid
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Reproducibility
2 tell stories
…but that’s another story…