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Data Journalism 101:
A Guide to Reporting
with Data
Ron Nixon, The New York Times
What are we about today?• How to use Excel spreadsheets
effectively.
• How to identify and collect
data.
• How to produce stories across
beats — education, courts, biz
and government — using data.
• How to backstop/fact-check
data stories.
• How to build your own
database.
• How to use data for breaking
news.
• How to deal with dirty data.
By F
lickr
user
Nic
k P
iggott
Data journalism
“Data Journalism is an umbrella term, that to my mind, encompasses an
ever-growing set of tools, techniques and approaches to storytelling. It
can include everything from traditional computer-assisted reporting (using
data as a ‘source’) to the most cutting-edge data visualization and news
applications. The unifying goal is a journalistic one: providing information
and analysis to help inform us all about important issues of the day.”
Aron Pilhofer, former assistant managing editor for digital strategy at The
New York Times.
No one knows what the Matrix is! Or
your story!
The elements of data journalism
● Data analysis (using spreadsheets,
databases and statistical software)
● Online database
● Mapping
● Visualization
● Scraping Web data
● Digital storytelling
● Multimedia packages
Spreadsheets
Databases
Statistical software
Mapping software
New York Times: online databases
New York Times: mapping
AP: data visualizations
Why journalists should use data
● Allows journalists to see the “big
picture.”
● Expands the story from competing he
said/she said.
● Allows us to find stories that we might
otherwise miss.
● Shift the focus from looking at one bad
fruit to the entire barrel.
● Puts the reporter in control, rather than
sources.
Where to find data
● Government agencies
● Non-governmental organizations
● Websites
● Creating databases from scratch
Free tools for doing data journalism
● Google Docs
● SQL Lite
● Data visualization tools
● Free mapping software
● Open Office
Free tools for getting data from the
Web
● Readability
● Downthemall
● Google Chrome Scraper Extension
● Outwit
Using the Web as an investigative
tool
● https://archive.org/
● www.tineye.com
● whois.domaintools.com
● Google cache
Where to get help● Investigative Reporters and Editors www.ire.org
● International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
http://www.icij.org/
● 100Reporters http://100r.org/
● The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/
● Global Investigative Journalism Network http://gijn.org/
● World Press Institute http://www.worldpressinstitute.org/
● The Great Lakes Media Institute
http://www.greatlakesmedia.org/
● Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting http://pulitzercenter.org/
Data journalism handbook
Math for journalists
Case studies
The following are data journalism projects that I have
done at The New York Times and other places that
show that these kinds of stories are possible.
NYT: Iran sanctions
NYT: Bed-rail deaths
NYT:African Development Fund
Writing the data-based story
•What does the data show?
•What does it mean in the real world?
• Is there a Donkey to help guide the
reader?
•Are their good anecdotes?
•Craft a beginning, middle and an
ending.
•Turn the data into prose!
