Data JournalismStudio

MDST 3559: DataestheticsProf. Alvarado

1/27/2011

Business

• Late comers– Readings still required for mid-term

Review:Features of Data Journalism

• Depends on emergence of the datasphere– Transparency (Politics 2.0)– All data leaks

• ... and freely available tools for publishing and visualizing data (Web 2.0)– Google Docs, Zoho, Factual– ManyEyes

• Data converted into a common format– CSV = “comma separated vales” = tabular data in

a text file

Features of Data Journalism (ii)

• Stories directly reference the data they use– e.g. via embedded links to Google Docs

• Definition of story changes ...– Visualizations can be stories in themselves– The act of data curation itself considered a

journalistic act• Journalism, as the Fifth Estate, still mediates

between power and people, but in new ways– A new relationship of power is opened up

TBL says the future of journalism scholarship "lies with journalists

scholars who know their CSV from their RDF, can throw together

some quick MySQL queries for a PHP or Python output … and discover the story lurking in

datasets released by governments, local authorities, agencies, [libraries, museums] or any

combination of them – even across national borders."  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/22/data-analysis-tim-berners-lee

Overview

• Download a CSV file from Google• Format as tab separated file with Excel• Open up with a text editor• Cut and paste into ManyEyes• Explore ManyEyes visualization• Upload to Google• Explore Google Docs

Preliminaries

• Download jEdit– A powerful, open source, cross platform text editor for

programmers– http://http://www.jedit.org/index.php?page=download

• Get an account on Google– If you do not have one, or if you want a new one for this

class• Get an account on ManyEyes– http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/many

eyes/

Grab Some Data

• Go to links on Dataesthetics site• Click on each link– Should send you to Google Docs

• For each file, do: – File > Download As > Excel

• Note where you are saving your files

Convert the Data

• Open each file up in Excel• Do: – Save as > tab delimited text

• Close file (resave if necessary)• Open file in jEdit• Make sure that ...– Tabs are not converted to spaces– File is saved as a Windows or Unix file– These options found in Utilities > Buffer Options

View in ManyEyes

• Log in to ManyEyes• For each spreadsheet, do: Participate >

Upload a Dataset– Cut and paste the content of the jEdit window into

the text box– Do: Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V

• Add metadata and press Create ...

ManyEyes

• What kind of visualization to we choose?– See Learn More > Visualization Types– (Open in new window or tab)

• Start with first two visualizations

Combos

• Social networks in the world– Two rows of names– Matrix Chart, Treemap, Map (custom)

• Owners of US Treasury Bonds – One row of numbers, one row of names– Bubble Chart, Bar Chart

• Combined– Two rows of names + row of numbers– Bubble Chart

Workflow (Pipeline)

1. Grab Google2. Convert Excel3. Copy jEdit4. Visualize ManyEyes

Google Docs

• Go to docs.google.com• Upload the files you had previously saved– Use the drag and drop feature or just upload one

at a time• Create a folder an move them into it• Click on an item• Explore– freezing, sorting, sharing, gadgets ...