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SPECIAL THANKS TO: The followi wing individuals, f for sharing g - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Feb 02, 2023 315 likes •772 views

SPECIAL THANKS TO: The followi wing individuals, f for sharing g thei eir c consider erable knowled edge, , time and resources f for this pr presentation. Jim Ra Rankin Reporter/Photographer, The Toronto Star Fr Fred Val allan

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SPECIAL THANKS TO:

The followi wing individuals, f for sharing g thei eir c consider erable knowled edge, , time and resources f for this pr presentation. Jim Ra Rankin Reporter/Photographer, The Toronto Star Fr Fred Val allan ance-Jones es Assistant Professor, Journalism, University of King’s College M. . Tyl yler Dukes Managing Editor, Reporters’ Lab

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ABOUT ME

I’m a graduate of Carleton University’s School of Journalism I’ve worked as a freelance journalist, copywriter and community manager over the past four years I’m a member of: Concatenate() is my favourite Excel function

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ABOUT ME

I r I recently:

  • Completed the Data Journalism Summer School Boot camp at the University of

King’s College in Halifax, NS

  • Spent a month writing about Big Macs as part of Tribal DDB’s successful “Our Food.

Your Questions” campaign for McDonald’s Canada

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ABOUT ME

I have freelanced for:

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ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

Two very important po points b before w we cont ntinue: 1. I am not a data journalism expert. 2. Canadian journalists currently do amazing data journalism work. We’re ‘far behind’ in terms of the institutionalism of data journalism in our newsrooms.

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WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

Also known as Computer-Assisted Reporting, Computational Journalism, Data-driven journalism, etc.

+

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WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

“Data journalism is obtaining, reporting on, curating and publishing data in the public interest.” Jonathan Stray, professional journalist and a computer scientist “Data can be the source of data journalism, or it can be the tool with which the story is told – or it can be both. Paul Bradshaw, Birmingham City University

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WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

  • Let’s mash the two together:
  • Data journalism is “Journalism in which data leads to and/or is instrumental in

presenting a story in the public interest”

  • “In the public interest” – important to distinguish that simply obtaining interesting

data does not equal ‘data journalism’ – example of story that has huge database of raw data/then presented in context – case in point: Wikileaks

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WHAT IS ‘DATA?’

Anything quantifiable and in the public interest! For example:

  • Government Databases
  • Budget Records
  • Short-form Census
  • The number of streetlamps in Toronto
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SO WHAT’S A DATA JOURNALIST?

Think of a data journalist as a foreign correspondent that spends time opening spreadsheets rather than overseas Just as there’s no such thing as speaking ‘Chinese’ or ‘First Nations’, data journalism is made up of many different languages and dialects.

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Data Management Data Collection Scraping/Crawling Data Visualization Geocoding

Component nents of a a Dat ata a Jour urnal nalis ism S Story

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SCRAPING/CRAWLING

Parsing large volumes of data and extracting relevant information Languages: Python, Ruby on Rails, Regular Expressions

  • Ex. 1:

: In Inside the F Federal B Budget Stuart T Thomp mpson, , Mike Sukma manows wsky, D David We Weisz (Ad H Hoc Da Data)

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DATA COLLECTION/CLEANUP

Obtaining records from municipal, provincial and federally-affiliated departments for dissemination and analysis in the public interest Language: Google Refine, Freedom of Information/Access to Information Requests

  • Ex. 2

. 2: : ATI R I Request - TTC N Noise Co Compl plaints 2011 ( (Da David We Weisz)

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DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Organizing, correlating and analyzing large groups of records Languages: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, SPSS, MySQL

  • Ex. 3

3: Par arking T Ticket D Dat atab abas ase Ch Chad S Skelton ( (Vanc ncouv uver Sun un)

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DATA VISUALIZATION

Presenting data in an attractive way that the general public can understand and interact with. Languages: HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery

  • Ex. 4:

: “What d doe

  • es the m

mod

  • dern f

family look

  • ok like

in n your ur city?” B By Ryan n MacDo Dona nald, Stua uart A. Thompson,

  • n, M

Murat Yuks kseli lir (TheGlobeandMail.c .com

  • m)
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GEOCODING

Drawing conclusions from geographic datum; plotting points on a map, as well as geospatial analysis Programs: Google Fusion Tables, ArcGIS, QGIS

  • Ex. 5 “Censu

susF sFile: W Where do y you u fit in?” Adam H Hoope per ( (OpenFile)

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WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

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WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

PEOPL OPLE!

Photograph by Steve McCurry

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WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

Data for data’s sake is not the intent on data journalism What separates data journalism from reports, audits, projections are people – like all great journalism, the human element is fundamental.

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CANADA’S DATA JOURNALISTS

Adam Hooper – (Freelance) Fred Vallance -Jones – University of King’s College (formerly Hamilton Spectator) Glen MacGregor – Ottawa Citizen David McKie – CBC Patrick Cain, Keith Robinson and Leslie Young – Globalnews.ca Data Bureau Stuart A. Thompson – The Globe & Mail Jim Rankin, Robert Cribb – Toronto Star Steve Rennie– Canadian Press David Akin – Sun News Roberto Rocha – Montreal Gazette Chad Skelton – Vancouver Sun

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DATA JOURNALISM IN CANADA We e have the e tal alent

  • ent. S

So what at’s s stopping ing us us?

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CANADA’S DATA JOURNALISM BARRIERS

  • Access to Information
  • Funding & Support
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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Inconsistent d dat ata a format at

  • No unified data format
  • Files can be in .txt, Excel, Access, (if we’re lucky)
  • Usually it’s like this (photocopy of a picture), leading to OCR software, and

headaches Exorbitant Co Costs

  • Records start at $5 – and can exceed… $2 billion!

Ti Timeline

  • From one month to 7 years and beyond
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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

5,234 – total number of Federal access requests by news media in the year ending March 31, 2011 Increase of 41% over the year before However…

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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

“As a country that was once among the world's leaders in government openness, it is unfortunate that Canada has dropped so far down the list. Partly, this is the result

  • f global progress, with which Canada has failed to keep pace. Canada's Access

to Information Act, while cutting edge in 1983, has not been significantly updated since then, and reflects many outdated norms.”

  • The Ce

Cent ntre f for Law and nd De Democracy, Gl Global Right t to Inf nformation R Rating …In the world’s first RTI Ranking, Canada scored 79 points out of a possible 150. USA – 89 points Mexico – 119 Points Columbia – 82 Points

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EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

Newsroom: T Toronto Star Journ rnalists: J Jim R Rankin, Scott Simmie, Michelle S Shepard, Joh

  • hn Dunc

Duncanson, J Jennifer Quinn. nn.

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  • Follow-up to Race & Crime series
  • ATI requests took seven years and $10,000
  • Includes geocoded maps

EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

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Updated version of data from previous two stories, as well as updated Toronto census demographic data

EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

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THE RESULT?

  • Over a dozen stories and features
  • Police across the country acknowledge that racial bias exists
  • Toronto police partnered with the human rights commission to find ways to

improve hiring, promotion and retention of minority officers, and at ways to improve how they police.

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INSIGHTS: JIM RANKIN, TORONTO STAR

“Data journalism is nothing new. What is relatively fresh is the ease with which we can now make data visualizations. This is exciting and bosses are starting to get it. For a long time, it was a very lonely landscape in Canada, with very few journalists who included computer-assisted reporting in their toolboxes. That is changing. So, where are we behind in Canada? Data visualizations (but catching up). Use of FOIs by journalists (woefully low). Data hosting on MSM web sites. Fewer hybrid [journalists] who can code (also catching up).”

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FUNDING AND SUPPORT

…We need it.

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Reporters’ Lab Description: A project of Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, with a focus on reducing the cost of original public affairs journalism, with a focus on data journalism What they do:

  • Review enterprise journalism software
  • Write and report on matters related to public affairs journalism
  • Commission original programs (Timeflow, Video Notebook, Haystax)
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KNIGHT-MOZILLA OPENNEWS

The ultimate journalist/hack collaboration Dedicated to solving online problems related to news coverage and computer- assisted reporting.

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KNIGHT MOZILLA OPENNEWS

Ha Hack Days

  • One-off events around the globe where hacks/hackers collaboratively solve

pressing data journalism issues through collaboration and programming Sour urce

  • Repository of open-source written within the journalism community, including

features exploring the authors behind the code itself Fell llowships

  • Knight Mozilla Fellows embedded in partner newsrooms for 10 months, writing

code that aids online reportage

  • 2013 Fellowships
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KNIGHT-MOZILLA FELLOWSHIPS

  • New York Times
  • BBC
  • the Guardian
  • Zeit Online
  • Spiegel Online
  • the Boston Globe
  • ProPublica
  • La Nacion

Why no Canadian newsrooms?

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CANADIAN RESOURCES

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WHY IT’S IMPORTANT (FOR EVERYONE!)

Distill lls la large, co convolu luted i issues into rel relevan ant in informat ation

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INSIGHTS: CHAD SKELTON, VANCOUVER SUN

“If done right – database journalism projects can drive much more traffic to news organizations’ websites than a typical series of stories,” says Skelton. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a story on our website – even if it’s about Jon & Kate – that got 2 million hits. So these projects hold out the possibility of a big bang for your buck.”

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WHAT’S NEXT?

  • Improve our Access to Information system
  • Create an institutional backbone to help further data

journalism initiatives

  • Push for broader inclusion of data journalism in

educational curriculums

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MY CONTACT INFO

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. “The Data Journalism Handbook”. Edited by Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru and Lucy Chambers. http://datajournalismhandbook.org/

  • 2. Rankin, Jim. “Brokering Access: Power, Politics, and Freedom of Information Process in Canada,

Chapter 13: The Quest for Electronic Data: Where Alice meets Monty Python meets Colonel Jessep.” Edited by Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby.

  • 3. Skelton, Chad. “Parking Ticket Database.” Vancouver Sun.

http://www.vancouversun.com/parking/advanced-search.html?appSession=194338235528792

  • 4. Macdonald, Ryan; Thompson, Stuart A. Yukselir, Murat.“What does the modern family look like in your

city?” TheGlobeandMail.com http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/what-does-the-modern-family-look-like-in-your- city/article4553070/

  • 5. Hooper, Adam. “CensusFile: Where do you fit in?” OpenFile

http://www.openfile.ca/interact/census

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

  • 6. Thompson, Stuart A.; Sukmanowsky, Mike; Weisz, David “Inside the Federal Budget. “ Ad Hoc

Data http://www.adhocdata.ca/federal/

  • 7. “Global Right to Information Rating: Canada.” Centre for Law and Democracy.

http://www.rti-rating.org/view_country.php?country_name=Canada

  • 8. Rankin, Jim; Simmie, Scott; Shephard, Michelle; Duncanson, John; Quinn, Jennifer

(2002) “Race & Crime.” Toronto Star – October 19, 20, A1. October 26, 27, A1 http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/raceandcrime/article/760539

  • 9. Rankin, Jim; Winsa, Pattie; Ng, Hidy; Bailey, Andrew. Known to Police. The Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/knowntopolice

  • 10. Rankin, Jim; Bruser, David; Welsh, Moira; James, Royson; Honderich, John. Race Matters. The

Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/racemattersr.com/specialsections/raceandcrime/article/760661

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DATA JOURNALISM RESOURCES

The C Canad adian an J Journali alism Proje ject: J J-Topics: C s: Computer-Assisted Rep eporting http://j-source.ca ca/catego gory/j-topi pics cs/j-topics/co compu puter-ass ssisted-repor

  • rting

The D Data a Journali alism H Handbo book http://dataj ajou

  • urnali

alismhan andbo book.or

  • rg/

Nat ational I l Institute f for Compute ter-Assisted R Repor

  • rting

http://www.ire.org/nicar ar/ Data ta Driven J Journali alism http://datad adrivenjournali alism.net/ Reporte ters’ L ’ Lab http://www.repor

  • rterslab

lab.or

  • rg/

Nieman an Journali alism L Lab http://www.niemanla lab. b.org/ The G Guar ardian Datablo ablog http://www.guar ardian an.co.uk/news/datablo ablog knigh ght-moz

  • zilla

lla OpenNew ews http://www.moz

  • zillao

llaopennews.org/