2nd Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data … · 2nd Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data Mining ... Chul Joong Kim, Kathryn O’Hara, Thuy Huong Pham, ... 2nd Kavli

2nd Kavli Symposium on

Science Journalism: Data Mining Dolce Hayes Manison, San Jose, CA, USA, 16

th-18

th February 2015

Detailed Report

Published August 25, 2015

2nd

Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data Mining

Dolce Hayes Mansion, San Jose, CA, USA, 16th

-18th

February 2015

2 | P a g e

PREFACE

The 2nd

Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism brought together an international group of leading

science journalists and specialists to explore data mining and innovative data tools.

Advisory committee

Damien Chalaud

Executive Director

World Federation of Science Journalists

Veronique Morin

Science Journalist; Symposium project leader


Mariette DiChristina

Editor-in-Chief

Scientific American

Ivan Oransky

Global Editorial Director

MedPage Today

Dan Fagin

Director, Science, Health and Environmental

Reporting Program, New York University

Ginger Pinholster

Director, Office of Public Programs

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Pallab Ghosh

Science Correspondent

BBC

Volker Stollorz

Science Journalist

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

James Hamilton

Director, School of Journalism

Stanford University

Richard Stone

International New Editor

Science Magazine

Thomas Hayden

Science journalist/author

Lecturer, Stanford University

James Cohen (Advisor)

Director of Communications & Public Outreach

The Kavli Foundation

Robert Lee Hotz

Science Editor

Wall Street Journal

Participants

Fifty-six participants from 10 countries, who work as either science journalists or data mining experts,

attended the symposium. Their names can be found at the end of this document.

Report Authors

David M. Secko1 and Veronique Morin

2

1 Department of Journalism, Concordia University, Montreal; email: [email protected]

2 Science journalist, Kavli Symposium project leader, former president of WFSJ, CSWA

[email protected]

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the organizing committee for their time and effort in making the symposium a

success. In addition to the principal funding provided to the symposium by the Kavli Foundation,

generous support was also received by the German Science Academy.

mailto:[email protected]


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FOREWORD

Dear Readers,

The Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism is a unique platform/forum that brings together different

stakeholders – science journalists, academics, policy makers, and researchers – to deeply discuss topics

and issues important to field.

The 2nd

Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism focused on the technological revolution of recent

decades that has allowed us to collect, store and exploit increasingly vast quantities of data and to

communicate them globally, irrespective of location. Data is everywhere, it is making headway into every

area of the global economy. The impact of data in science is felt across many domains: from medical

research to the environment, genomics to clinical trials. It has created major changes in societies, offering

great challenges and opportunities for science.

The purpose of the Symposium was to address how tools and applications of data mining in the context of

science coverage can benefit the international science journalism community. Data journalism is a

relatively new but rapidly evolving discipline, with enormous potential. As journalists around the world

try to tackle the vast quantity of data that is produced every day, what are the drawbacks and challenges

to its adoption throughout the media? Data journalism incorporates an increasing set of tools, and

techniques and as journalists begin to be data-savvy and bring the technology into their workplace, is this

revolution helping create new opportunities for data consolidation into compelling stories?

Several overarching themes emerged during the Symposium and this report aims to create a snapshot of

the processes, incentives, organization and resources behind science data gathering for journalists. The

meeting focused on a handful of case studies and some of the new innovative tools and work

methodologies that were discussed should help to empower our science journalism community around the

world. Already stemming from this Symposium, some promising initiatives are underway. A group is

working to create a data journalism resource, such as a curated link library of data repositories, another

group is striving to deploy air quality sensors in a number of locations around the world, and some of

lessons learned have been integrated into the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) ongoing

projects. Last but not least, the WFSJ organized a couple of data journalism workshops at the World

Conference of Science Journalism in June 2015 in Seoul.

This report is not intended to be a static document. It is designed to be a “request for comments.” As you

read this report, we encourage you to ask questions, think of potential areas of development and critique.

We would appreciate if you could send us your notes to - [email protected] - so we can start a dialogue

between WFSJ and the wider science journalism community. We believe the challenges of data driven

science journalism are too important and too difficult for a single organization to assume that it has all the

appropriate answers.

So let the conversation begin. Let us connect as a community, look forward to the future, and embrace

change together. Hopefully some of the projects outlined in the document will open a new world of

possibilities.


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Please note: the report attempts to remain true to what was said during the invited presentations and

subsequent breakout sessions so as to reflect the group deliberations that occurred during the event.

We would like to thank the members of the Advisory Committee: Mariette DiChristina, Dan Fagin, Pallab

Ghosh, Robert Lee Hotz, Ivan Oransky, Ginger Pinholster, Richard Stone and Volker Stollorz. We also

thank David Secko and his team of rapporteurs: Reade Levinson, Alessandra Santiago, Shara Tonn, Diane

Wu.

Special thanks to the symposium project leader, Veronique Morin, for her hard work, advice and

dedication.

Yours truly,

Damien Chalaud

Executive Director


@WFSJ

Facebook

James Cohen

Director, Communications & Public Outreach

The Kavli Foundation

@KavliFoundation

Facebook

https://twitter.com/WFSJ

https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Federation-of-Science-Journalists/1457077117948430

https://twitter.com/KavliFoundation

https://www.facebook.com/KavliFoundation

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INTRODUCTION

What is the future of data mining for science journalists?

On February 16th

-18th

, 2015, 56 journalists and experts from 10 countries assembled in the heart

of Silicon Valley to openly discuss the future of data mining. The need for science journalists

worldwide to have powerful data mining tools emerged as a key issue during the 1st Kavli

Symposium on the Future of Science Journalism. The 2nd

symposium sought to advance a clear

vision for how to build new tools to help international collaboration amongst science journalists.

This report summarises the recommendations that emerged from the free exchange of ideas

during the discussion of current and future practice in data mining. No sessions during the

workshop were tape recorded, so the report was constructed from notes taken during the day.

The organizers welcome any additional reader comments.

RATIONALE FOR THE 2ND

SYMPOSIUM

The 2nd symposium discusses the tools of data mining in the context of science news and their

benefits to increase international collaboration amongst the science journalism community.

Joining the international perspective of our participating journalists where experts who can help

us identify the promises, problems, and opportunities of data mining tools.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

The symposium was kicked off and stimulated by two keynote speakers:

Alexander de Sherbinin, (Columbia University) and Co-Chair of the CODATA Task Group on

Global Roads Data Development

Title: “Challenges of Accessing Big Data”

A debate has arisen as to the utility of investments in data and monitoring for the SDGs versus

direct investment in development interventions. Drawing from experience working in different

data domains and in a number of countries, Dr. de Sherbinin argued that data and monitoring are

vital for gauging progress towards goals and also contribute to an informed civil society.

http://www.kavlifoundation.org/sites/default/files/image/news/Final_DetailedReport_KavliSym_2014.pdf

http://www.kavlifoundation.org/sites/default/files/image/news/Final_DetailedReport_KavliSym_2014.pdf

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He also provided examples of data products from CIESIN and third party holdings that can

inform public debates about the future we want.

Vincent McCurley, Creative Technologist, National Film Board of Canada

TITLE: “Data Storytelling in Interactive Documentaries”

Creative Technologist Vincent McCurley presented data-driven interactive projects created and

produced by the National Film Board of Canada and discussed their approach to storytelling. He

demonstrated how data is mined and weaved into stories to engage the audience.

WHAT WAS DISCUSSED?

The recommendations were generated from sessions in four topic areas. Each topic was

approached through the discussion of example tools and related case studies.

Session Topic Area Example Tools Case Study

1 New Tools Metromaps Health and Infectious Diseases

2 Applications Quakebot Geojournalism and Ecohealth

3 Platforms IPython IPython in Storytelling

4 Investigative Data tools and storytelling The Use of Overview

HOW WAS IT DISCUSSED?

After presentations on each topic, the participants were broken into four working groups for

intensive discussion. The goal was to examine the opportunities, roadblocks, potential uses of the

tools presented, and how they can contribute to the enhancement of international collaboration

amongst science journalists. Working groups were asked to propose key messages at a final

plenary session, where three recommendations were chosen for future advancement.

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Session 1 Report: New Tools / Health and Infectious

Diseases

Session Leader: Volker Stollorz

Contributing Team: Alan Boyle, Kathryn Brown, Tien Dung Bui, Damien Chalaud, Christina

Elmer, Richard Harris, Chul Joong Kim, Kathryn O’Hara, Thuy Huong Pham, Dafna Shahaf,

Ron Winslow

Rapporteur: Shara Tonn

KEY CONCEPTUAL POINTS

It is not enough to have data, you need to be able to understand it

Information overload is a key driver for wanting better, usable data mining tools

The desire is to give structure to a data set so that you can learn its pattern, major

components and storyline

PLENARY SESSION

Session 1 examined new data mining tools in the context of health and infectious diseases. The

session began with a presentation by Dafna Shahaf, Stanford University InfoLab, who spoke

about her work on Metromaps. This research tool is capable of organizing data (e.g. a set of

documents) into a set of major storylines that is outputted as a map. The map is designed to have

coherence (puts documents into an ordered chain), coverage (maps will cover a diverse set of

topics from the input documents) and connectivity (maps will show how storylines are

connected). These maps are not about small details. Metromaps provide the “big picture” and are

most useful to high level stories with one dominant storyline. One eventual goal of such maps is

to provide insight into large data sets in a way that leads to surprise (data analysis showing new

things) and plausibility (the data supports the new surprises well). Key questions raised by the

group included: How much annotation is required for Metromaps? Could it be used to query the

scientific literature? How plug and play is it? Can it pick out jargon? Can it be personalized?

How do you program surprise?

Christina Elmer, Spiegel Online, spoke next about tracing epidemics and whether journalists’

could use data mining to detect new waves of infectious disease outbreaks. Detection, however,

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requires data. Elmer suggested this data might come from official statistics, reliable information

from sources, or side effects related to an outbreak. Tools such as Outwit Hub, Import.io, and

Tabula could be used to structure found information and make it possible to visualize it, but this

does risk only asking questions you can answer from the data you have. Elmer warned that there

is a big data hubris to be aware of, where most big data is biased and prone to manipulation. Big

data can therefore only be used as a clue. Key questions raised by the group included: What data

sets are there? Has anyone gotten stories this way? Could a journalist detect an epidemic this

way? Is there a way to share real-time data? What are the challenges of getting data?

WORK GROUP 1 DISCUSSION

The work group for Session 1 had a vibrant discussion that began with two interconnected

questions: (1) Where are the data sets that could help with tracing epidemics? (2) How should

journalists convey the data sets in an interesting way for the reader? Each participant spoke of

what they saw as the challenges and potentials in data journalism.

Key questions from Group 1: Challenges and Potentials in Data Journalism

Where do the data sets live? Which datasets help us with early detection?

I’m interested in infographics. How do you make science stories relevant and easy to

read? What tools can you use?

How can you translate data journalism into Vietnam’s journalism world?

I like the idea of using metro maps for tracing publications on certain topics. How do you

build a network like the geojournalism group (but for health) that could connect with

local journalists and break stories? What kind of data is there and what could be do with

it?

It would be nice to have hands on regular training with tools for data journalism. It would

also be nice to have a much better sense of the data universe. Where is everything?

How do you build datasets in countries without resources? We can also ask communities

what they want to know and go from there.

How do you train local journalists in third world countries? How can we make tools that

are relevant to the locals as well as journalists in other countries?

We need to think of ways to upgrade the quality and quantity of science information

that’s reaching the public. How can we keep science writers informed and then get the

info out? Metro Maps could also be helpful for early detection or for pre-discovery—

going back into coverage and reports to elucidate what is happening now such as fleshing

out the big picture of tracking diseases.

How do I connect with journalists and other outside professionals earlier in the research

process? How can we share datasets?

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The group explored these questions, firstly, by discussing various issues with datasets. These

issues revolved around legal restrictions and a lack of clarity on how to access data. It was clear

that some sort of clearinghouse for datasets and epidemiological case studies of how to use them

would be useful for science journalists. If was, however, noted that local data can be unreliable

and that rules of access can vary widely. It was further noted that the line between research,

science and journalism is fuzzy with data journalism.

The group then explored the potential of Metromaps as a tool for science journalists, keying on

the need for functional tools that many journalists could employ. This was discussed with

reference to working with Dafna Shanhaf, the potential of Metromaps as way to connect the dots

on a story, and the challenges of committing to and funding its development. The group felt this

goal could not be realized without pairing it with the development of a fixed group of journalists

that is able to provide regular, hands-on training with a focus on science topics. This type of

synergy might be initiated with primers or briefing portals for journalists on how to cover

controversial issues with data. The end goal was seen as a new tool (e.g. a version of Metromaps)

able to illustrate science stories with data as well as the resources to help guide journalists in how

to report with it. The group discussed the importance of documenting how science journalists use

the proposed new tool so that others have case studies to follow.

WORK GROUP 1: SUGGESTIONS FOR ADVANCEMENT

The breakout group suggested the following be advanced:

Key Idea Description Goal

Create a Clearinghouse Broad clearing house that

includes health and

environment datasets

Create an interface and a

curated list of datasets

Bring people and data sets

together to develop better stories

Develop Metromaps Create a working group of

journalists to partner with

Dafna Shanhaf

Develop a flexible prototype for

science journalists to map

emerging stories

Skills Training for Data

Mining Tools Intermingle data mining

experts and journalists

Skills training with the tools

needed for stories

Build capacity for people to use

the clearinghouse and new tools

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Session 2 Report: Applications / Ecohealth and

Pollution

Theme Leader: Thomas Hayden

Contributing Team: Irma, Curtis Brainard, Alex DeSherbinin, Dominique Forget, Robert Lee

Hotz, Veronique Morin, Subhransu Priyadarsini, Willie Shubert, Harry Surjadi, Mariko

Takahashi

Rapporteur: Reade Levinson


There are common problems in getting anything done (e.g. time, attention, etc.) and

computers should be used to alleviate these problems

We have too little data that matters and lots of data that does not matter (there needs to be

active data collection from journalists)

We need to lower the cost of finding stories with data

We need to begin to discuss the best ways to personalize a story found with big data

We need to push for sharing and openness in data mining

PLENARY SESSION

Session 2 examined applications in the context of ecohealth and pollution. The session began

with a presentation by Dan Nguyen, Stanford University, on teaching computers to solve

fundamental problems in reporting. Nguyen began by discussing the example of computers

playing chess, suggesting that the most powerful opponent is a human + computer combination

(e.g. average people with computational understanding that have computer power available to

them). Nguyen characterised these players as centaurs, human/computer hybrids that play better

together. Nguyen raised the question of how to become a centaur in journalism? He provided the

example of Quakebot, an algorithm written by Ken Schwencke that can gather information and

is known for alerting its creator to a story about an earthquake while he slept. Quakebot was

characterized as supplemental. It is designed to save time and make things more interesting, not

to replace journalists. Nguyen suggested the key point in data mining was to accept what

computer/algorithms were designed to do, and to find ways to apply these features to journalism.

Data should be used to begin the assessment of an issue and journalists should then step in.

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Willie Shubert, Internews Network, spoke next and provided a conceptualization of the future

of science journalism where data, and techniques to make data accessible, are key drivers for a

journalist’s work. Shubert suggested the desire is to use data to give a global context to a story,

followed by journalists building off the data to do local stories. Geojournalism is an example of

this desire. Shubert spoke of geojournalism as storytelling that combines data visualization,

environmental data and geo-tagged stories to create visualization maps of news stories that use

data as their evidence. These efforts are not just about data. They seek a combination of data and

storytelling. Infoamazonia is an example of how this works. It started with a picture from

NASA, included journalists in various countries who collected data, and resulted in interactive

maps about environmental issues in the Amazon basin. Shubert noted that Infoamazonia is an

open repository of data visualizations that continues to be built on (see: geojournalism.org). Key

questions raised by the group included: What type of training is needed to do geojournalism?

How do you fund it? What is the workflow? Who is in such a network? How do you decide

which stories to cover? Could geojournalism be a model applied to other areas?


The work group for Session 2 began by noting that journalism is no longer an exclusive pursuit

and is being done by people who are working out of their backpacks. Whatever the group

decided should be relevant to this broader community. Alex de Sherbinin and Willie Shubert

agreed to work on a list of resources for interested science journalists (see Appendix D).

The group discussed that one simple thing that could be done is to create a platform to which

people all over could contribute data in every form and it could be archived under broad topics.

This platform would help science journalists get over the challenge that they may not have good

data to access, could include a handbook on data science journalism, and a list of 10-12 stories

that used data in an interesting way to show people the possibilities of what sort of data might be

available. The group discussed that this platform should (i) include a spatial data search so that

datasets could be located by geographical region, (ii) be reusable and (iii) be open source. The

goal was to position the group and the WFSJ as active in open source journalism where tools for

data storytelling are created together and publicly available.

“In Canada, we don’t have access to that much data. Not like, in

the US, anyway, where you have this open policy. In Canada, a lot

of the data is very hard to access.”

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It should be not for profit and not proprietary. The group did not see the value in creating a “one

off” data journalism project as it was time to invest in reusable, open source technologies.

The second key idea to emerge from the group’s discussion was that journalists need to take a

role in organizing the data and that the divide between hard core, data journalists and those that

want to use data is narrowed. There was debate over whether science journalists should be

collecting raw data and whether this was crossing a line into activism.

The group noted that data mining is just another way of getting information, and learning the

tools of data mining is sort of like learning how to conduct an interview. The group saw an

important need for education. The group noted that science journalism was facing a “whole new

set of skills” to learn and will require engagement with the technical community to learn them.




Clearinghouse for Data Collate and curate data sources

and tools

Add examples that are inspiring

on how the data is used

Create a go to place for science

journalists to identify major,

reliable data sources and, over

time, curate them

Training Build on the Geojournalism.org

model and integrate into WFSJ

training

Have a list of journalists willing

to do one-on-one training

Build capacity for people to use

the clearinghouse and tools

New Data Generation Pilot a project between EJN and

WFSJ for collection of new data

for storytelling

Create local data journalism and

the documentation of how a

global pilot can be accomplished

“Right now, we all just make information. We don’t really

participate in [data] collection. You’ve got to have journalists

collecting raw data.”

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Session 3 Report: Platforms

Theme Leader: Richard Stone and John Bohannon

Contributing Team: Tim De Chant, Jim Giles, Fred Guteri, Brandon Joo, Eun Sung Kim,

Thomas Lin, Jason Palmer, Fernando Perez, Aditi Risbud

Rapporteur: Alessandra Santiago


We have a desire to better understand how tools can be used by journalists (tools are

often built for understanding science and not journalism)

Our emphasis should be on combining computer analysis with storytelling

There is a need to move away from static stories to interactive stories, ones were the

underlying data can be manipulated by others after a story is done

The reason to move to platforms for data mining is that once a problem is solved on

them, it is solved forever and for everyone

PLENARY SESSION

Session 3 examined platforms used for data mining. The session began with a presentation by

Fernando Perez, UC Berkeley, on the data mining platform IPython. The original purpose of

IPython was to provide insight into data (Perez was also concerned with reproducibility and

education). Perez commented that, in giving his talk, he was interested in how to engage with

journalists and how to create a link between storytelling and data processing. He discussed

IPython as a web application that works in any browser and allows exploratory data analysis;

with it, you can run code, complete data analysis, add explanatory text and provide data outputs

in one place. Perez noted that IPython allow interactive “notebooks” to be created – plain text

documents that record your results – that provide an interactive space for working with data and

are easily shared. The desire with IPython is to provide a platform able to lower the barrier to

sharing a dataset and how it has been analyzed. Key questions raised by the group included:

With notebooks, what are the copyright issues? Would notebooks help with openness?

John Bohannon, Science Magazine, spoke next and discussed the use of IPython in storytelling.

Bohannon spoke about the reason he learned to code: He was always dependent on others to

open, analyze and work with the data. This made it hard for him to meet deadlines and added

stress to story production, so he took it upon himself to learn.

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These skills have led to stories such as an examination of which science journals will publish

fake articles. Bohannon provided the following advice: If you want to code, there will be pain,

but IPython take 98% of it away. In particular, once you solve a problem with IPython, it is

solved for every other story and can be done again easily. Bohannon ended by suggesting a

platform such as IPython might be the start of a movement in “reproducible journalism”, where a

data story gives all the components that went into it. Key questions raised by the group included:

Why use IPython over other platforms? Could it be adapted further for journalists? Would

reproducible journalism ever work?


The work group for Session 3 conducted a hack-a-thon with IPython where everyone did

something on a computer after coming up with one interesting question as the beginning of a

story. The group explored topics such as (a) how many drugs on the market are actually

cannabinoids, (b) self-reported health information inaccuracies in research studies, (c) how to

explain complex research coming out of math and physics, and (d) examining how scientists

engage with the public. This process lead the group to discuss the need for IPython, if it was ever

to become an accepted platform, to be taught by developers and journalists working together.

The group felt it was important to reach out to healthcare journalists and political journalists and

design a 3-day workshop to learn how to code/hack. Various training resources -

datajournalism.stanford.edu, datajournalismhandbook.org, datadrivenjournalism.net - were noted

as important to this endeavor. The overall message was that people are truly interested in

platforms for data mining, but few know how to use them, making it important to empower

journalists and build support in newsrooms.




IPython workshop 3-day summer camp for data

journalism

To show and tell

Framework for scraping Work with developers to

build a better model of

IPython Notebook

Obtain a platform anyone,

anywhere can use easily

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Session 4 Report: Investigative

Theme Leader: Deborah Blum

Contributing Team: Pallab Ghosh, Manuel Lino, Vincent McCurley, Margaret Munro, Dan

Nguyen, Cheryl Phillips, Jonathan Stray, Dana Topousis

Rapporteur: Diane Wu


Real data is messy and investigative journalism does not use “clean” data set like

university researchers

Stories do not just emerge from data

The problems of data journalism are poorly characterized

We need new ways of finding patterns in data

We need data literacy first, and then ways to study data

PLENARY SESSION

Session 4 examined data mining for investigative science journalism. The session began with a

presentation by Cheryl Philips, Stanford University, who spoke about data tools and

storytelling. Philips discussed the desire to know when to code during data mining investigations

and when to use non-coding tools. She suggested there is a history to using new tools in

investigative reporting, but it takes time to adapt to them. Journalists therefore need time to

develop a tool box and the expertise on how to use it. Philips suggested there are three key

elements of adapting to data mining: (i) getting the data; (ii) organizing the data; and (iii)

analyzing the data. She noted that these steps might use tabula, comentdocs, open refine, tableau,

highcharts, silk, javascript, Access, MySQL, Python, R, dataminer, import.io, downthemall. But

the point is knowing what data is out there and how reliable it is.

Jonathan Stray, The Overview Project, spoke next about how the documents used in journalism

are getting longer and longer. He questioned how a journalist will be able to read them all. Stray

suggested we need algorithms for stories with the idea of doing journalism through science. The

example given was the tool Overview, which uses clustering to find story trends. The value of

Overview, said Stray, is that it orients a journalist (user) to the important material in a data set,

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which otherwise would be too large or time consuming to examine. Overview is therefore an

investigative tool for story discovery within very large document sets. Stray went on to speak

about the lessons he learned from creating Overview, namely that (a) how people work with

documents (their workflow) is more important than the algorithm for a data mining tool, (b) it is

about combining humans and machines to get the story done on time, and (c) real data is messy.

Investigative journalists, in particular, want to analyze the inputs into journalism (e.g. source

material) not the outputs of journalism (e.g. NYT articles), but many tools are not designed to

cope with the input data investigative journalists need. As such, Stray suggested the problems of

data journalism are poorly characterized and developers have failed to realize that journalists

don’t explore data randomly, they actively search for things (i.e., the investigative issue in data

mining is how to improve journalists searching for useful information). In the end, Stray asked:

How we would you know if a data mining tool was good? He suggested asking three questions:

o How many stories got done with the data mining tool? (Did it give journalistic outputs…)

o How long did it take to use the data mining tool? (Faster for journalists to use it…)

o What happened after it was used? (Was there an impact on the world...)


The work group for Session 4 was a lively discussion of the rich field of data journalism. The

group framed their discussion with the following questions: How can science journalists do more

investigative reporting? Can data journalism help? Have any of you done it?

The group discussion of these questions noted that data users are largely investigative reporters.

It was suggested that the institution you work for, or the position you have, changes your access

to resources and your time to investigate. It was discussed that science journalists may not want

initially to move to more investigative journalism, but, that having access to freely available

databases could be a game-changer for all science journalists. It was suggested that we therefore

need to make a list of 15 datasets, such as the EPA toxic release database, that could serve as a

Swiss-army knife for science journalists. This should be combined with example stories that

have emerged from these datasets and tutorials for how to use them.

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Data Journalism Starter Kit for Science Journalists

1. Data Sets Relevant to science

Non-duplicative of IRE

International

2. Toolkit Tools: tabula, comentdocs, open refine, tableau, highcharts, silk, javascript,

Access, MySQL, Python, R, dataminer, import.io, downthemall, etc.

Clustering information with Overview

Visualization tools

3. Training modules Case studies

Training videos; tool-based and skills-based

Webinars (live tutorials)

Translated to make it global

The group noted how there are available tools, but science journalists have not dived into their

use. The group wanted to help science journalists get into data mining with a curated library of

already publicly accessible data that is science specific (perhaps hosted by the Knight Science

Journalism program at MIT or AAAS’s Eurekalert). Resources are there; the group discussed

putting them up in a curated, topic-organized international format. It was noted that it is

important people use them, so how do we get the word out? How do we get science journalists

excited about this? The group discussed how this could be done in stages with a possible demo

at NASW meeting in October in Boston or WFSJ in South Korea. The group felt it important to

network outside the science journalist bubble (e.g. with IRE and NICAR). The goal for the

group: to enable more science journalists to use data journalism, with the expectation that

more of data journalism is going to mean better science journalism.




Curated library Topic organized library of

data with an international

slant

Get science journalists excited

about data mining

Demos and tutorials Create a demo for training

Include video tutorials

Obtain a platform anyone,

anywhere can use easily

Prototype training workshop Network science journalists

with other organizations

Examine how to do this

internationally

Get organized

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Summary and Outcomes

FINAL PLENARY DISCUSSION

The 2nd Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data Mining ended with a group

discussion of the 11 suggestions generated from the four working groups (see the

suggestions at the end of each work group summary above). There was a clear overlap in

ideas and needs for the future of data mining in science journalism. Discussion of the

overlaps in suggestions from the four working groups allowed three collective

recommendations to emerge from the symposium.

FINAL RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Create a place on the web for data (clearinghouse)

The clearinghouse should be publicly accessible, have the ability to upload and download data,

and be curated. A volunteer working group was created to facilitate this recommendation.

2. Create opportunities for training in data mining

These training activities should be in-person and online. They should be specific to science

journalism but also providing networking opportunities with the data journalism community. It

was recommended that they be built around a specific project and include the creation of an

online hub where people can make connection with people and event.

3. Develop a demonstration project

Further discussion should be held to develop a project to showcase best practice in data mining

for science journalism. This might include work with EJN on environmental monitors or the

development of a Metromaps tool.

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Appendices

A. WORKING GROUPS

LAST NAME

FIRST

NAME POSITION

GROUP 1: HEALTH AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Boyle Alan Science Editor, NBC News

Brown Kathryn Head of Communication, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Bui Tien Dung Science Editor, Youth Daily, Vietnam

Chalaud Damien Executive Director, World Federation of Science Journalists

Elmer Christina Editor, Science Department, Der Spiegel

Harris Richard Science Correspondent, NPR News

Kim Chul Joong Health/Science Editor, Chosun Ilbo Newspaper, South Korea

O'Hara Kathryn

Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication,

Carleton University

Pham Thuy Huong Reporter, Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam

Shahaf Dafna Researcher, Stanford University InfoLab

Stollorz Volker

Science Journalist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung,

Cologne

Tonn Shara Journalism Student, Stanford University

Winslow Ron Deputy Bureau Chief Health/Science, The Wall Street Journal

GROUP 2: ECOHEALTH / POLLUTION

Irma Reporter, Kompas Media Nusantara, Indonesia

Cohen Jim Director of Communications, Kavli Foundation

DeSherbinin Alex Co-Chair of the CODATA Task Group

Forget Dominique Science Journalist, Quebec Science

Hayden Thomas Lecturer, Earth sciences, Stanford University

Hotz Lee Science Journalist, The Wall Street Journal

Levinson Reade Journalism Student, Stanford University

Morin Veronique Science Journalist/Project Director of the Kavli Symposium

Priyadarsini Subhransu Editor, Nature India

Shubert Willie EJN, Internews

Surjadi Harry Freelance Science Journalist, Indonesia

Takahashi Mariko Science journalist, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

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GROUP 3: PLATFORMS

Bohannon John Contributing correspondent, Science

Brainard Curtis Contributing editor, Columbia Journalism Review

De Chant Tim Senior Digital Editor, PBS Nova

Guterl Fred Executive Editor, Scientific American

Joo Brandon Conference Secretariat, WCSJ 2015, South Korea

Kim Eun Sung

Head of Public Relations Division, National Research Council

of Science and Technology, South Korea

Lin Thomas Editor in Chief, Quanta Magazine, Simons Foundation

Palmer Jason Science and Technology Correspondent, The Economist

Perez Fernando Physicist, Applied Mathematician, UC Berkeley (via phone)

Risbud Aditi

Science Communications Officer, Gordon and Betty Moore

Foundation

Santiago Alessandra Journalism Student, Stanford University

GROUP 4: INVESTIGATIVE

Blum Deborah Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships, MIT

Diane Wu Journalism Student, Stanford University

Ghosh Pallab Science Correspondent, BBC

Lino Manuel Editor, El Economista, Mexico

McCurley Vincent Creative Technologist, National Film Board of Canada

Munro Margaret Senior Writer, Science, PostMedia News

Nguyen Dan

Developer, ProPublica and Lecturer, Journalism, Stanford

University

Phillips Cheryl Hearst Professional in Residence, Stanford University

Stray Jonathan

Data Journalist, Computer Scientist and Head of The Overview

Project

Topousis Dana Head of Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, NSF

ROAMING

Fagin Dan Director, Science, Health & Environment Program, New York

University

Secko David Associate Professor of Journalism, Concordia University,

Canada

Stone Richard International Editor, Science

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B. SYMPOSIUM PRIMER

Symposium Primer

Introduction

This document contains four primers for each of the themed sessions at the upcoming 2nd

Kavli

Symposium. Each primer was prepared by a journalism student from Stanford University under the

guidance of a session moderator and the project leader. These students have also kindly offered to serve

as rapporteurs during the symposium. They have written these brief documents to allow us to think in

advance about making use of data-mining tools for potential collaborative projects to empower science

journalism. Included are suggested readings to provide additional food for thought.

Goal of the Symposium:

Developing new tools to help international collaboration amongst science journalists.

Breakout sessions:

Group 1: Health and infectious diseases (Adapting the tools)

Group 2: Ecohealth/pollution (Identify the best tools, stories and storytelling)

Group 3: Platforms (training, increase collaboration, stories and storytelling)

Group 4: Investigative (Collaboration, discuss the best tools, complexity, security, sources)

This primer is intended to stimulate your thinking before the 2nd Kavli Symposium. As an

introduction, it is not intended to encompass all available information, viewpoints and

opinions. Instead, we expect you to bring your expertise, your views on missing but vital

topics, and your energy to the event to build knew knowledge on the topic.

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Session 1: DATA MINING / New Tools

Presenter and Moderator: Volker Stollorz, Science Journalist, Frankfurter Allgemeine

Sonntagszeitung, Cologne

Rapporteur: Shara Tonn

Journalists and other regular consumers of news are turning more and more to big data to make sense of

political, social, economic, scientific and technological trends. But not many tools can accurately and

efficiently organize datasets on the spot into easy-to-read and easy-to-search visualizations, which would

be a born to both professionals and laypeople. The task of fitting small nuggets of relevant information

into coherent big pictures remains difficult. This session will talk about how data mining and

computational tools help to avoid information overload and search for insights.

Dafna Shahaf, researcher at Stanford University InfoLab, will first talk about her work with Metro Maps.

With her team, Shahaf has built a search tool with information retrieval algorithms that can funnel a few

tens of thousands of documents (news, legal documents, books, research domains) into color-coded

storylines that resemble a subway map. Different lines of inquiry within a single issue or subject come

together, branch off, dead end or intertwine to show unfolding news or science stories, and viewers can

zoom in or out depending on the desired level of detail. With her computational approaches, journalists

and the audience may be able to search new topics, organize articles they want to read or discover how

retrieved documents are related. Metro Maps could be a new tool to search for insights in huge data sets –

be it the news or unfamiliar research domains.

Christina Elmer, editor for Data Journalism and Science Reporting based in Hamburg, will follow up

with a case study that looks at tools available to journalists tracking breaking public health news.

Focusing on the spread of Ebola in West Africa, Elmer will discuss the techniques that can lead to success

as well as the caveats that face those relying on data in a real-time, crisis situation.

Considering these two presentations, this session will explore questions such as how can you develop or

refine tools to be useful for different types of science stories? How do you ensure that sources are

unbiased and diverse? What tools are good for breaking news stories versus longer story timelines? How

can Metro Maps clarify scientific controversies for different audiences? How can you use these tools to

connect science journalists around the world? For example, could you compare the worldwide reporting

about Ebola by creating regional news metro maps?

References

Information Cartography: Creating Zoomable, Large-Scale Maps of Information. Dafna Shahaf, Jaewon

Yang, Caroline Suen, Jeff Jacobs, Heidi Wang, and Jure Leskovec.

Connecting the Dots Between News Articles. Dafna Shahaf and Carlos Guestrin.

http://i.stanford.edu/~dshahaf/fp1097-shahaf.pdf

http://i.stanford.edu/~dshahaf/kdd2010-shahaf-guestrin.pdf

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Session 2: DATA MINING / Applications

Moderator: Thomas Hayden, Lecturer, Earth Sciences, Stanford University

Rapporteur: Reade Levinson

What’s the problem?

The relationship between investigative journalism and big data should be extraordinarily fruitful. But,

says source TK, there is “too much material too difficult to obtain containing too little information”.

Common, frustrating problems include the challenges of extracting data from handwritten forms and

reports, dealing with search tools that “are not robust enough to find the patterns journalists might seek,”

and trying to integrate and compare information from widely disparate sources. Often, cost prohibits

indexing audio and video sources, meaning that large potential sources of data are effectively

inaccessible.

What’s possible?

Despite these challenges, today’s news feeds already hint at a new generation of investigative reporting.

For example, a recent series from Reuters, “The crisis of rising sea levels: Water’s Edge,” shows the

powerful role data manipulation promises to play in the future of journalism and how a simple, arithmetic

program applied to publicly accessible data can lead to a very compelling environmental story.

A 2011 article in the journal Communications of the ACM, “Computational Journalism,” argues that there

is enormous potential for public-interest journalism to thrive if computer scientists and journalists can

work together. “Being able to analyze and visualize interactions among entities within and even outside a

document collection…would give stories more depth, reduce the cost of reporting, and expand the

potential for new stories and new leads,” write the paper’s authors. Current projects in data mining could

“provide a breakthrough in investigative reporting” (Cohen et al. 2011).

What’s being done right now?

A number of news organizations, academic programs, and nonprofits are focusing data journalism

and working to build more ties between computer science and journalism. For example, the Earth

Journalism Network (EJN) is a global Internews organization working to empower local media. EJN’s

flagship GeoJournalism project began in 2012 with a partnership with the Brazilian non-profit O Eco.

Together, they created InfoAmazonia, an interactive digital map describing rainforest degradation in the

Amazon. In 2013, EJN published a map-based interactive program – the US Climate Commons project –

with the goal of creating media-friendly, accessible data about Climate Change.

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Further Reading:

Cohen, Sarah, James T. Hamilton, and Fred Turner. (2011). “Computational Journalism.”

DocumentCloud.org

Faleiros, Gustavo. (2013). “Geojournalism Handbook shows how to capture earth science knowledge for

reporting.”

Nguyen, Dan. (2010). “Scraping for Journalism: A Guide for Collecting Data.”

Thomson Reuters’ OpenCalais service: www.OpenCalais.org

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Session 3 – DATA MINING / Platforms

Moderator: Richard Stone, International Editor, Science and John Bohannon, Contributing

Correspondent, Science

Rapporteur: Alessandra Santiago

Accessing shared data as well as data visualization and analysis is a key component of the reporting

process for science journalists. But how are these massive data sets best shared across the globe? The

speakers of this session seek to provide an answer to this question by introducing a new tool that aims to

enhance international data collaboration.

Fernando Perez is a physicist and applied mathematician at UC Berkeley. He is the creator of IPython,

an interactive data-mining platform. His talk will focus on the role the platform can play in facilitating

shared data analysis and visualization by integrating pre-existing online tools and journals. Perez will

speak about IPython’s multi-user capacity and interactive computing mechanism, as well as the story of

its creation.

John Bohannon, contributing correspondent for Science Magazine, will then provide a real-time

adaptation of one of his own stories using the IPython platform. His demonstration of the uses and

potential of IPython will provide further evidence for the universal applicability of the platform for

journalists across the globe.

This session seeks to provide insight into the usefulness of this particular platform in creating an easy-to-

use international data-sharing mechanism. The speakers will explore questions like: how can IPython be

applied as a science journalist? What are the specific uses of such a platform? How is this different from

pre-existing technologies and online data sets? How can data-sharing best be streamlined internationally,

and how can this tool better connect journalists around the world?

Further reading:

IPython founder details road map for interactive computing platform. Paul Krill.

Pick up Python. Jeffrey M. Perkel.

Interactive notebooks: Sharing the code. Helen Shen.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2610411/data-visualization/ipython-founder-details-road-map-for-interactive-computing-platform.html

http://www.nature.com/news/programming-pick-up-python-1.16833

http://www.nature.com/news/interactive-notebooks-sharing-the-code-1.16261

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Session 4 – MINING THE HIDDEN STORY / Investigative

Moderator: Debora Blum, Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships, MIT

Rapporteur: Diane Wu

As we have seen in many examples from previous sessions, projects that incorporate data mining and

analysis can yield powerful new insights. Effective visualization of these results can help you (and your

readers) understand an issue in a completely different way. But how do you actually go about doing it?

What are the essential skills and tools? Is it important to learn a scripting language, or to invest in

mapping software? The tools available to data journalists are numerous, often overlapping, and

potentially intimidating to navigate as a beginner.

Here, we break down the workflow into three steps: acquisition, analysis, and presentation.

Step Specific tasks Examples Some tools to consider

Acquisition Finding sources of existing

data, soliciting large data

sets, converting data to a

useful format, data cleaning

PriceCheck by KQED to

crowdsource data on health

costs

DocumentCloud, Google

Refine, EveryBlock

Analysis Calculating statistics,

arranging data

The Guardian’s Datablog

gives good examples of how

to answer questions using

data analysis

Excel, SQL, CSVKit, R,

Jigsaw

Presentation Visualizing analysis results,

making maps, creating

interactions between the

reader and the data

"Methadone and the Politics

of Pain" by the Seattle Times

Snake Oil Supplements? at

Information is Beautiful

Excel, Overview, R,

Google Fusion Tables,

Tableau Public, QGIS

References & further reading:

http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/introduction_0.html Clear explanation of data journalism

https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-13749-data-driven-journalism-explained Another concise and

clear summary

http://blogs.kqed.org/stateofhealth/tag/pricecheck/

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/feb/05/is-there-really-a-jewish-exodus-from-western-europe

http://seattletimes.com/flatpages/specialreports/methadone/methadoneandthepoliticsofpain.html

http://seattletimes.com/flatpages/specialreports/methadone/methadoneandthepoliticsofpain.html

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-supplements/

http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/introduction_0.html

https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-13749-data-driven-journalism-explained

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http://gijn.org/resources/data-journalism/ Comprehensive list of resources for data journalism; includes

blogs, books, and conferences

http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/147736/10-tools-for-the-data-journalists-tool-belt/

Recommended tools for various aspects of data journalism

http://www.mulinblog.com/essential-data-journalism-skills-conversation-three-data-journalists/ Quick

interview with three data journalists (including session speaker Cheryl Phillips) on essential skills

http://gijn.org/resources/data-journalism/

http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/147736/10-tools-for-the-data-journalists-tool-belt/

http://www.mulinblog.com/essential-data-journalism-skills-conversation-three-data-journalists/

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C. EVENT PROGRAM

Monday Evening, 16th

February 2015

17:00 Informal Cocktail

18:30 DINNER BUFFET – Westwood Patio

19:30 Evening Speaker

Alexander de Sherbinin, Associate Director for Science Applications, CIESIN, Columbia

University, and Co-Chair of the CODATA Task Group on Global Roads Data Development

Title: “Challenges of Accessing Big Data”

Summary: As the amount of data is increasing at incredible rate; access to these data are

becoming equally increasingly difficult. Dr. de Sherbinin argues that they should be made readily

available to better monitor issues of global concerns in public health and the state of the

environment

Discussion moderated by Robert Lee Hotz, Science Journalist, The Wall Street Journal

Each participant introduces themselves

Discussion hosted by Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent, BBC

Tuesday, 17th

February 2015

07:30 BREAKFAST - Silver Creek Dining Room

08:20 Welcoming remarks – San Jose Room

Richard Stone, Chair of World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ) 2015, Seoul

08:30 SESSION 1 – DATA MINING / New Tools

Presenter and Moderator: Volker Stollorz, Science journalist, Frankfurter Allgemeine

Sonntagszeitung, Cologne

Speaker: Dafna Shahaf, Researcher, Stanford University InfoLab

Title: “The Aha! Moment: From Data to Insight”

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Summary: This session will examine how big data is being harnessed for journalists by focusing

on Metro Maps of Information –structured summaries that can help us understand the information

landscape, connect the dots between pieces of information, and uncover the big picture. We also

focus on a possible framework for automatically uncovering insightful connections in data.

09:15 Case Study #1: Public Health/Infectious Diseases/Ebola

Speaker: Christina Elmer, Editor for Data Journalism and Science Reporting, Spiegel Online,

Hamburg

Title: “Tracing The Epidemic – How Journalists Can Detect Waves of Infection”

Summary: When viruses spread out like Ebola in West Africa, reliable numbers can at first be

rare. But for journalists, estimating the extent of an epidemic is crucial. This case study gives an

overview of techniques to detect, investigate and visualize infection waves. Which data mining

tools can be used in those cases? Which pitfalls can be hiding deep inside the datasets? And are

there further needs that could be met by innovative tools developed in the scope of science?

10:00 COFFEE BREAK

10:15 SESSION 2 – DATA MINING / Applications

Presenter and Moderator: Jay Hamilton, Hearst Professor of Communication and the Director

of the Journalism Program, Stanford University

Speaker: Dan Nguyen, leading developer in the field of data journalism, ProPublica and

Lecturer, Journalism, Stanford University

Title: “Teaching Computers To Solve Fundamental Problems In Reporting “

Summary: Because we are continually pressured to learn the latest in computers, or face

obsolescence, we often forget that we should be teaching computers and not just the other way

around. This session looks at how the challenges journalists face can be broken down into

computational tasks, leaving the most unique parts of investigation and discovery to the human

reporter.

11:00 Case Study #2: Climate Change/ Mapping rivers of the world

Presenter and moderator: Thomas Hayden, Science Journalist and Lecturer, Stanford

University

Speaker: Willie Shubert, Senior Program Coordinator, Internews Network

Title: “Geojournalism: Communicating Environmental Change With Earth Data”

Summary: The earth is undergoing a massive ecological change. Tracking the impact and

influences of these changes is becoming an increasingly important challenge for science

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journalists. This case study focuses on the promises, limitations, and opportunities of using data

to provide audiences with the evidence and context needed to understand the Earth’s

environment.

12:00 LUNCH BUFFET – Westwood Patio

13:30 SESSION 3 – DATA MINING / Platforms

Presenter and moderator: Richard Stone, Science magazine

Speaker: Fernando Perez, Physicist, applied mathematician, UC Berkeley; IPython creator

Title: “Designing a Data Mining Platform”

Summary: Google teamed up with Mr. Perez to integrate Google Docs with IPython Notebook,

allowing journalists to not only share data but share their analyses/visualizations of the data.

IPython Notebook is fully integrated with all the online tools/platforms that journalists already

use. Fernando tells us the story behind the creation of the platform.

14:00 Case Study #3: Adapting the platform

Speaker: John Bohannon, Science Magazine

Title: “Who's Afraid of IPython Notebook?”

Summary: As a case study, science correspondent John Bohannon will adapt one of his latest

stories “Who’s afraid of peer review” using IPython platform. He will argue that this new data-

driven platform is currently the best tool for reporting, he will “take it for a spin”, identifying

some of its potential as well as its shortcomings.

14:45 COFFEE BREAK

15:00 SESSION 4 – MINING THE HIDDEN STORY / Investigative

Presenter and moderator: Deborah Blum, Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships,

MIT

Speaker: Cheryl Philips, Hearst Professional in Residence, Stanford University

Title: “Data Tools And Storytelling, How They Go Together”

Summary: Tools such as Excel, data visualization and mapping can help reporters find their

stories. Cheryl Philips provides examples from breaking news to medical investigations and she

will also suggest a few tools and programs to master.

15:45 Case Study #4: Finding data mining

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Speaker: Jonathan Stray, Science Journalist, Computer Scientist and Head of The Overview

Project

Title: "Closing the Gap: From Computer Science Research to Published Stories"

Summary: Data mining algorithms hold huge promise for journalism but have not been widely

adopted. Obstacles include research work with unrealistically clean input, inattention to basic

usability issues, and poor understanding of the journalist's problems and workflow. Jonathan

Stray discusses facing these challenges in developing Overview, a visual document mining

platform that originated at the Associated Press in 2011 and is now widely used by investigative

reporters.

17:00 BREAK

18:00 DINNER BUFFET & Informal Group discussion – Westwood Patio

Moderated by Robert Lee Hotz, The Wall Street Journal

19:00 Evening Speaker


TITLE: “Data Storytelling In Interactive Documentaries”

SUMMARY: Creative Technologist Vincent McCurley presents data-driven interactive projects

created and produced by the National Film Board of Canada and discusses their approach to

storytelling. He will demonstrate how data is mined and weaved into stories to engage the

audience.

Wednesday, 18th

February 2015

08:00 BREAKFAST - Silver Creek Dining Room

09:00 BREAKOUT SESSIONS (Four Groups)

Breakout sessions take a closer look at the four case examples. In small workgroups, participants

examine the opportunities, roadblocks, potential uses the tools presented, and how they can

contribute to enhance international collaboration amongst science journalists.

Group 1: Health and infectious diseases (Adapting the tools) – San Jose Room

Group 2: Ecohealth/pollution (Identify the best tools, stories and storytelling) – Almaden

Group 3: Platforms (training, increase collaboration, stories and storytelling) – Palm

Plaza 2

Group 4: Investigative (Collaboration, discuss the best tools, complexity, security,

sources) – Blossom Valley

12:00 LUNCH BUFFET – Westwood Patio

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13:00 PLENARY DISCUSSION AND GOAL REVIEW – San Jose Room

A. Discussion

Each Work Group shares key points from breakout sessions

Discussion of main takeaways of the symposium

Moderator: Dan Fagin

B. Goal review

Solicit ideas, opportunities and even partnerships identified during the symposium;

Moderator: Dan Fagin

Solicit recommendations for continuing momentum at the 2015 World Conference of

Science Journalists; Moderator: John Bohannon

Solicit tool considerations/priorities for the World Federation of Science Journalists;

Moderator: Damien Chalaud

Solicit ideas for additional symposia

15:00 CLOSURE

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D. DATA RESOURCES

List of Data Resources for Journalists on the

Environment and Sustainable Development

Produced for the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) by Alex de Sherbinin, CIESIN, The

Earth Institute at Columbia University ([email protected]), and Willie Shubert,

Internews ([email protected])

Aqueduct: http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/aqueduct

An online atlas of water resources and the risks to those resources

Biodiversity Media Network: http://biodiversitymedia.ning.com/

Aims to boost the quantity and quality of media coverage of biodiversity issues; hosted by IUCN, IIED

and Internews

Climate Central: http://www.climatecentral.org/

Find information on the impacts of climate change; Surging Seas map tool helps identify localities at risk

Climate Data: http://www.data.gov/climate/

Data related to climate change for America’s communities, businesses, and citizens

Earth Journalism: http://earthjournalism.net/

Tools to enable journalists from developing countries to cover the environment more effectively

Future Earth: http://www.futureearth.org/

An umbrella for all global change research; includes articles, graphs, and media contacts

Sustainability Competitiveness Index: http://www.weforum.org/content/pages/sustainable-

competitiveness/

World Economic Forum (WEF) index focused on the environmental side of economic competitiveness

Environmental Performance Index (EPI): http://epi.yale.edu/

2014 EPI country rankings and associated data; data explorer; case studies on indicators in practice

GeoJournalism: http://geojournalism.org/

Tools to produce multimedia stories or simple maps and data visualization to help creating context for

complex environmental issues

Global Forest Watch: http://www.globalforestwatch.org/

Satellite derived maps of deforestation data; create custom maps, analyze forest trends, subscribe to alerts,

or download data for their local area or the entire world



http://www.wri.org/our-work/project/aqueduct

http://biodiversitymedia.ning.com/

http://www.climatecentral.org/

http://www.data.gov/climate/

http://earthjournalism.net/

http://www.futureearth.org/

http://www.weforum.org/content/pages/sustainable-competitiveness/

http://www.weforum.org/content/pages/sustainable-competitiveness/

http://epi.yale.edu/

http://geojournalism.org/

http://www.globalforestwatch.org/

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Human Development Report Data: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data

Human Development Index; Public Data Explorer; Multidimensional Poverty Index

NASA EarthData: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/

WorldView tool allows visualization of near-realtime imagery from NASA satellites related to fires, dust,

ash clouds, air quality, drought, floods, etc.; other mapping and visualization tools such as FIRMS for

fires; access to more than a dozen NASA data centers and associated satellite data products

Ocean Health Index: http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/

A quantifiable assessment of the capacity of our oceans to deliver benefits and resources sustainably

Population Estimation Service: http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v3/population-

estimation-service

Hosted by SEDAC, draw a polygon around an area (e.g., a cyclone track or toxic release) and get the

population in that polygon in real time; iOS app under development

Population Reference Bureau (PRB): http://www.prb.org/

2014 World Population Data Sheet including interactive map, population clock, etc.

Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu

Gridded population data, poverty maps, infrastructure data (dams, nuclear plants, roads), PM2.5 maps,

national estimates of population and land area by climate/biome/elevation (PLACEv3); map gallery

available under Creative Commons licenses; country treaty participation data

Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) Tools: http://www.sei-international.org/tools

Range of interactive tools on several global environmental issues

UNEP Live: http://uneplive.unep.org/

Environmental indicators on multiple issues, at multiple scales, in multiple formats

UNEP-WCMC Protected Planet: http://www.protectedplanet.net/

Search for protected areas and learn about natural features and species found in them

UNData: http://data.un.org/

This tool allows you to search for country level statistics on a huge range of topics from across all UN

agencies (e.g., UN Statistics Division, FAO, UNESCO, etc.)

Vizzuality: http://www.vizzuality.com/

Cool maps and graphics on a range of topics

World Bank Data: http://data.worldbank.org/

Includes the World Development Indicators and free and open access to data about development in

countries around the globe; thematic portals for agriculture and rural development, climate change,

environment and urban development

World Resources Institute (WRI): http://www.wri.org

A variety of data and information on the environment

WorldView: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/

Near-realtime satellite imagery on wildfires, snow and ice cover, aerosol plumes, among others

http://hdr.undp.org/en/data

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/

http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v3/population-estimation-service

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v3/population-estimation-service

http://www.prb.org/

http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/

http://www.sei-international.org/tools

http://uneplive.unep.org/

http://www.protectedplanet.net/

http://data.un.org/

http://www.vizzuality.com/

http://data.worldbank.org/

http://www.wri.org/

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/labs/worldview/

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Regional resources:

Ekuatorial: http://ekuatorial.com/en/datasets

Indonesia specific datasets on marine, forests, and natural disasters

InfoAmazonia: http://infoamazonia.org/datasets/

An aggregation of environmental datasets for the 9 countries of the Amazon basin including forests,

watersheds, industries and indigenous lands

Open Development Mekong: http://OpenDevelopmentMekong.net

Development tracker focused on the Mekong (to be launched Feb 24, 2015)

Third Pole Data Network: http://data.thethirdpole.net/

An open source geospatial database: a simple, searchable catalog of water-related datasets sourced from

leading organization monitoring water in Asia

http://ekuatorial.com/en/datasets

http://infoamazonia.org/datasets/

http://opendevelopmentmekong.net/

http://data.thethirdpole.net/

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E. PARTICIPANT BIOS

Irma, Reporter, Kompas Media Nusantara, Indonesia

Irma has been working for the last 10 years at Indonesian KOMPAS Daily, which

specializes in environmental issues. She was a participant of science fellowships such

as the Environmental Reporting Fellowship 2012 held by GIZ-Germany and SjCOOP

Asia held by WFSJ in 2013-2014. She won the Media Award Prize in 2013 for her

report on sustainable energy.

Deborah Blum, Director, Knight Science Journalism Fellowships, MIT

Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer for primate research and the

author of five books, such as the best-seller The Poisoner's Handbook. She writes a

blog about environmental chemistry for The NYT and has written for a wide range of

other publications including Wired, Time, Scientific American, Discover, The WSJ

and The Guardian. She is a co-editor of A Field Guide for Science Writers and the

2014 guest editor of Best American Science and Nature Writing. Blum is a former

president of the National Association of Science Writers (USA) and a former board

member of the WFSJ. She now serves as vice president of the Council for the Advancement of Science

Writing (USA). She was recently chosen to become the director of the Knight Science Journalism

Program at MIT and will assume that position in July.

John Bohannon, Contributing Correspondent, Science

John Bohannon is a contributing correspondent for Science. One of his projects was to

use Python to generate fake, fatally flawed scientific papers and to submit them to

hundreds of journals. About half of them were accepted for publication.

John also runs the annual Dance Your Ph.D. contest.

Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

As NBC News Digital's science editor, Alan Boyle focuses on developments in space

exploration and the physical sciences, plus paleontology, archaeology and

anthropology. Boyle is also the author of The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet

Made a Big Difference. He has won awards from the National Academies, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Association of

Science Writers, Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Space

Frontier Foundation, IEEE-USA, the Pirelli Relativity Challenge and the CMU

Cybersecurity Journalism Awards program. He was in the 1990s a co-organizer of the

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New Media for a New World conference for ex-Soviet journalists. Before joining NBC, Boyle was an

editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Spokesman-Review in Spokane and The Cincinnati Post.

Curtis Brainard, Contributing Editor, Columbia Journalism Review

Curtis Brainard is the editor of the Scientific American blog network and a

contributing editor at Columbia Journalism Review where as a staff writer (2006-

2013) he covered science, environment, and medical news. He launched in January

2008 The Observatory, the CJR's first fulltime department dedicated to critically

analyzing science coverage in the media as well as the opportunities and challenges

facing science journalists. Brainard has written for The New York Times, The

Washington Post, The New Yorker, Popular Science and OnEarth magazine. He

serves on the executive board of the World Federation of Science Journalists since 2013.

Kathryn Brown, Head of Communication, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Kathryn Brown joined Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) as Head of

Communications in 2013. She oversees communications and public relations

for the Institute, including overall strategy, media relations, web presence,

editorial services, outreach, and internal communications. Before joining

HHMI, Brown served for six years as vice president of marketing and

communications at The Conservation Fund, a top-ranked environmental non-

profit. Brown also has worked as a communications consultant to the National Academies and other

leading science institutions. An award-winning writer, she is a former contributing correspondent

for Science magazine and has written for Scientific American, Discover, Popular Science, New

Scientist, Technology Review, and other popular magazines.

Bui Tien Dung, Science Editor, Youth Daily, Vietnam

Bui Tien Dung is currently working as an educational and scientific editor for Tuoi

Tre (Youth Daily), one of Vietnam's leading dailies. The Educational and scientific

section are considered a top priority for Tuoi Tre. Before joining Youth Daily, Bui

was a lecturer at the Faculty of Journalism and Communications at the University of

Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University. He also worked as an

editor for Vietnam Economic News, the leading online newspaper VietnamNet and

some other publications on Vietnam. He participated as a mentor in SjCOOP Asia – the World Federation

of Science Journalists’ mentoring program. Bui Tien Dung currently works on setting up a network of

Vietnamese Science Journalists.

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Damien Chalaud, Executive Director, World Federation of Science Journalists

Damien Chalaud is the Executive Director of the World Federation of Science

Journalists. He graduated from the University of London – Goldsmiths College with a

Masters degree in Communications and a Masters degree in Journalism. From 1993-

1997 he was a journalist and producer at BBC Radio and the BBC World Service. In

1998 he joined the European Broadcasting Union in Geneva as Director of Eurosonic

satellite operations. In 2001 he was appointed Director of the cross-media platform at

RFO-France Télévisions. From 2004 to 2007 he became Director of content for the Radio France

CityRadio network in Paris. From 2008-2013 he has been a project manager and consultant for different

international broadcasters and web/mobile entities: BBC, CBC, Danmarks Radio, Radio-Canada, ARD,

RTE, Vodafone, O2, etc.

James Cohen, Director of Communications, Kavli Foundation

James Cohen is the communications head for The Kavli Foundation, which is

dedicated to advancing science for the benefit of humanity, promoting public

understanding of scientific research, and supporting scientists and their work. As

director of communications and public outreach, Cohen provides strategic

direction and oversight for all of the Foundation's communications initiatives

and programs, such as support of science journalism to helping scientists become

better communicators and a variety of direct public outreach activities. Prior to

joining the Foundation, Cohen was director of media relations at the University

of California as well as associate director of communications. He is a member of

the Author's Guild and Writer's Guild of America, West.

Tim De Chant, Senior Digital Editor, PBS Nova

Tim De Chant is the senior digital editor at NOVA where he is the founding

editor of NOVA Next, a digital publication featuring in-depth articles and

commentaries, and head of social media strategy. He has also written for

Wired Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Scientific American, Ars Technica,

and others. Tim received his PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and

Management from the University of California, Berkeley and BA in

Environmental Studies, English, and Biology from St. Olaf College.

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Alex de Sherbinin, Associate Director for Science Applications, CIESIN, Columbia University, Co-

Chair of the CODATA Task Group

Alex de Sherbinin is the Associate Director for Science Applications at the

Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), an

environmental data and analysis center within the Earth Institute at Columbia

University. He also serves as Deputy Manager of the NASA Socioeconomic Data

and Applications Center (SEDAC), Chair of the ICSU CODATA Global Roads

Data Development Task Group, and Coordinator of the Population-Environment

Research Network (PERN), a network of 2,200 researchers from around the

world. Alex is a geographer who has published widely on the human aspects of

environmental change at local, national and global scales. In the past he served as a Population-

Environment Fellow at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and a population

geographer at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

Diane Wu, Ph D Candidate in Chemistry, Stanford University

Diane is a senior graduate student with a strong interest in pursuing science

journalism after graduation. She is managing producer of Green Grid Radio, a

student-run podcast and radio show on sustainability and the environment. Diane

has written for Nature, the Stanford Energy Journal, and the Cantor Arts Center

conservation blog. She recently produced a video about her research for the

American Chemical Society. Before graduate school she taught chemistry at Weill

Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar.

Christina Elmer, Editor, Science Department, Der Spiegel

Christina Elmer works as a data and science journalist at Spiegel Online in

Hamburg, Germany. Before that she was part of the investigative reporting team

at Stern magazine and worked as an infographics editor for DPA, the German

press agency. She also trains journalists in data reporting and online research.

Besides journalism, she studied Biology.

Dan Fagin, Director, Science, Health & Environment Program, New York University

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who writes frequently about environmental

science, Dan Fagin is a science journalism professor at New York University,

where he directs the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.

His book, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, was awarded the 2014

Pulitzer for General Nonfiction, as well as the New York Public Library’s

Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the National

Academies Science Book Award, and the Society of Environmental

Journalists’ Rachel Carson Environment Book Award. Dan’s recent

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publications includes articles for The NYT, Scientific American, Nature and Slate. His new book

project is about monarch butterflies in the Anthropocene.

Dominique Forget, Science Journalist, Quebec Science

Dominique Forget is a contributing editor for Québec Science, a popular French-

Canadian science magazine. She also writes the health column for L'actualité, a

main news magazine, and works as a health reporter for Radio-Canada's radio show

Les Éclaireurs. She freelances for La Recherche, a French science magazine, and

other magazines. Many of her articles have had widespread recognition, including

major awards from the Québec and Canadian magazine industries. She's the author

of two books: Perdre le Nord? (on climate change in the Canadian Arctic) and

Bébés illimités. La procréation assistée et ses petits (on the topic of assisted

reproduction). Both books have received widespread national recognition.

Pallab Ghosh, Science Correspondent, BBC

Pallab Ghosh is a science correspondent for BBC news. He reports for BBC Radio and

Television News, The Today Programme, Newsnight, The BBC News Website and

The BBC News Channel. He began in 1984 at the British Electronics and Computer

Press before joining New Scientist as the magazine's Science News Editor. He joined

BBC News in 1989, where he became a Senior Producer on BBC Radio 4's Today

Programme. He is a former Chair of the Association of British Science Writers, and

was President of the World Federation of Science Journalists. He was part of a BBC

news team that won the Arthur C. Clarke award in recognition of BBC News's

coverage of Space. He has also won the Media Natural Environment Award and has been named BT

Technology Journalist of the Year.

Jim Giles, Mosaic, UK

Jim Giles is an editor and media consultant. In 2012 he co-founded Matter, a long-

form start-up that launched via a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign and was

later acquired by Medium, a publishing platform created by Ev Williams, one of the

founders of Twitter. Before starting Matter he wrote for The NYT, The

Atlantic, New Scientist, Nature and many other publications.

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Mark Glaser, Executive Editor, PBS MediaShift and Idea Lab

Mark Glaser is founder, executive editor and publisher of PBS MediaShift and Idea

Lab. He is a long-time freelance journalist whose career includes columns on hip-

hop, reviews of videogames, travel stories, and humor columns that poked fun at the

titans of technology. From 2001 to 2005, he wrote a weekly column for USC

Annenberg School of Communication's Online Journalism Review. Glaser has

written essays for Harvard's Nieman Reports and the website for the Yale Center for

Globalization. He has written columns on the Internet and technology for the Los Angeles Times, CNET

and HotWired, and features for many other publications. Mark Glaser won the Innovation Journalism

Award in 2010 from the Stanford Center for Innovation and Communication.

Fred Guterl, Executive Editor, Scientific American

Fred Guterl, executive editor of Scientific American, has been writing about science

for more than 25 years. He is author of The Fate of the Species: Why the

Human Race May Cause Its Own Extinction and How We Can Stop It .

Guterl led Scientific American to a General Excellence Award from the National

Society of Magazine editors in 2011 for the first time in its 169-year history. Guterl

was formerly deputy editor at Newsweek International, an editor of Discover and

IEEE Spectrum. He also worked as a foreign correspondent based in London,

England. Guterl has appeared on CNN, Charlie Rose, the Today Show, and “The Daily Show” with Jon

Stewart to discuss popular issues in science. Guterl holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering

from the University of Rochester, and has taught science writing at Princeton University. He lives in the

New York City area.

James Hamilton, Hearst Professor of Communication, Stanford University

James T. Hamilton is the Hearst Professor of Communication and the

Director of the Journalism Program. His books on media markets and

information provision include All the News That’s Fit to Sell: How the

Market Transforms Information into News, Regulation Through

Revelation: The Origin, Politics, and Impacts of the Toxics Release

Inventory Program and Channeling Violence: The Economic Market

for Violent Television Programming. He is currently working on a book about economic markets for

investigative reporting and a book about the information lives of low-income individuals. Through

research in the field of computational journalism, he is also exploring how the costs of story discovery

can be lowered through better use of data and algorithms.

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Richard Harris, Science Correspondent, NPR News

Richard Harris has been covering science for NPR since 1986. Over the years he

has covered a wide variety of subjects, from physics, biology, astronomy,

environment, earth science, climate policy and biomedicine (his current focus).

Among his many awards: three AAAS prizes, a Peabody, a share of the

NAS/Keck award, and an AGU Presidential Citation for Science and Society. He

is past president of the National Association of Science Writers and currently on

the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Thomas Hayden, Lecturer, Earth Sciences, Stanford University

Thomas Hayden teaches science and environmental journalism and

communication at Stanford University. He has been an oceanographer, a staffer

at Newsweek, and a senior editor at US News & World Report. His cover

stories have appeared in Wired, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and

many other publications. He is coauthor of On Call in Hell, a national

bestseller about battlefield medicine, and Sex and War, about the biological

and social evolution of warfare. He is co-editor of The Science Writer’s

Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish, and Prosper in the Digital Age .

Lee Hotz, Science Journalist, The Wall Street Journal

Robert Lee Hotz is a reporter at The Wall Street Journal where he covers

basic research issues. He is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York

University and also president of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. He is a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS); an honorary life member of Sigma Xi, The Research Society; and is

a past president of the National Association of Science Writers. He is among

America’s most honored science journalists and shared in The Los Angeles

Times’ 1995 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Northridge Earthquake. He has

received awards from the National Academy of Science; The Society of

Professional Journalists, AAAS, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and

the American Geophysical Union, among others. He has traveled widely in

Antarctica, under the auspices of the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs.

Brandon Joo, Conference Secretariat, WCSJ 2015, South Korea

Brandon Joo is project manager at the conference secretariat for the 9the edition

of the World Conference of Science Journalists which will be held 8-12 June in

Seoul, Korea. Brandon worked previously as a public relations consultant for

information technology companies such as IBM Korea, Facebook Korea, and

LG-Nortel. He has for more than 4 years been a journalist on IT for the daily

newspaper The Digital Times. He has covered various IT issues, including

government policies, industry trends, products and articles on corporations such

as Intel, HP, Samsung, and LG.

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Eun Sung Kim, Head of Public Relations Division, National Research Council of Science and

Technology, South Korea

Eun Sung Kim is Head of Public Relations Division at the National Research

Council of Science and Technology, the umbrella organization of 25 public research

institutes in science and technology. She worked together with the Korean Science

Journalists Association to invite the WCSJ 2015 to Korea. Eun Sung is currently the

Operation Advisor of the events’ organizing committee. Her career includes 10

years in the convention and exhibition industry and 10 years in public relations.

Chul Joong Kim, Health/Science Editor, Chosun Ilbo Newspaper, South Korea

Born in 1963, he graduated the college of medicine, Korea University in 1990 and

got the medical doctor license. He had finished the resident course of radiology

department in Korea university hospital during 1991-1995 and got the radiology

board license which is certificated by Korean Medical Association. He has

worked for Chosunilbo Daily Newspaper as a fulltime medical journalist and

columnist since 1999. His newspaper company is the oldest and biggest

newspaper in Korea, and publishes 2.0 million copies per day. He is the President

of the Executive Board of WFSJ 2013-2015.

Reade Levinson, Journalism Student, Stanford University

Reade Levinson spends her summers in the Sierras teaching Leave No

Trace ethics to children. During normal school months, she is a junior in

the Earth Systems program at Stanford University, where she works as an

instructor at the climbing wall and competes on the university’s climbing

team. She studies climate change ethics and the cultural barriers to social

and political action in the United States. She is passionate about using

storytelling to cross cultural and ideological barriers and interested in the role that new forms of media

will play in shaping the future of environmental communication. The moment final exams conclude,

Reade sprints home to the mountains.

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Thomas Lin, Editor in Chief, Quanta Magazine, Simons Foundation

Thomas Lin is the founding editor of Quanta Magazine, an editorially

independent science news site published by the Simons Foundation. He

previously managed the online science and national news sections at The NYT,

edited the Scientist at Work blog, created the Profiles in Science video series,

produced the Science Times podcast, and wrote about tennis, science and

technology. He has also been a home page editor for The Indianapolis Star, a

reporter and photographer covering Queens, N.Y., a teacher and a mechanical

engineer.

Manuel Lino, Editor, El Economista, Mexico

Manuel Lino is the editor, and sometimes reporter, of the cultural section of the

Mexican newspaper El Economista, where he includes science topics as a part of

culture and also, given the nature of the publication, from a business perspective

(which in Mexico is kind of a movel subject). Lately he's also covering economic

sciences. He studied Biology, Music and Creative Writing and has a Latin-American

prize for a fictional short-story and a national one for a book of short-stories.


The son of a chocolatier and a cosmetic chemist, Vincent naturally gravitated

toward a degree in Mechanical Engineering on a journey to becoming a Creative

Technologist at the National Film Board of Canada’s Digital Studio in Vancouver,

Canada. It's taken him 15 years of building multi-platform interactive projects

(apps, installations, games and websites) to be useful at the NFB where he calls

upon this experience to help filmmakers and artists use technology to tell stories in

creative and innovative ways. When not tinkering with the latest storytelling technologies, Vincent enjoys

sharing his knowledge of interactive experiences at the University of British Columbia, British Columbia

Institute of Technology and Fairleigh Dickinson University; and he still enjoys the occasional chocolate.

Véronique Morin, Science Journalist/Project Director - Kavli Symposium

Véronique Morin is a science journalist and Project leader of the 2nd Kavli/WFSJ

Symposium. She was president of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association

(CSWA) and the first president of the WFSJ. She is a Southam journalism fellow,

Massey College, University of Toronto. For the past seven years, she has worked

for the science magazine program « Le Code Chastenay » on the public network

Télé-Québec, writing freelance articles, as well as developing documentary

projects. Her documentary (idea and research) “Time Bombs”, about Canadian

soldiers who participated in atomic bomb tests, received awards of « Best documentary” from the New

York International Independent Film festival, « Best Documentary » from the Canadian Association of

Broadcasters, and nominated for “Best research” at the Gemeaux awards.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/

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Margaret Munro, Senior Writer, Science, PostMedia News

Margaret Munro is a senior writer for Postmedia News which reaches millions of

Canadians through newspapers and websites including the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal

Gazette, Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun. Her work covering science – and science

controversies – has taken her to the Arctic to see the effects of global warming, to

First Nations communities to report on the diabetes epidemic and into Ottawa’s paper

labyrinth to reveal how the Canadian government has been muzzling scientists.

Munro’s honors include many writing and journalism awards and citations, including

runner-up for Canada’s World Press Freedom Award in 2013. Munro has taught science journalism at the

University of B.C., and served for several years on the board of the Canadian Science Writers’

Association and the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Science Media Centre of Canada

Dan Nguyen, Developer, ProPublica and Lecturer, Journalism, Stanford University

Daniel Nguyen is currently a lecturer in computational journalism at Stanford

University. Previously he worked as a news application developer at ProPublica, the

New York non-profit investigative newsroom, and as a beat reporter at the Sacramento

Bee.

Kathryn O’Hara, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton

University

Kathryn O'Hara is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and

Communication at Carleton University in Ottawa where she holds the School's

CTV Chair in Science Broadcast Journalism. Kathryn’s experience includes over

twenty-five years work in radio and television as a presenter, reporter, producer

and researcher, mainly in public broadcasting. She has served on numerous board

and panels, most recently the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on

Research Integrity. Kathryn is the Treasurer of the WFSJ and the former president

of the Canadian Science Writers’ Association where she campaigned against the muzzling of Canadian

government scientists.

Jason Palmer, Science and Technology Correspondent, The Economist

Jason Palmer is a science and technology correspondent for The Economist, based

in London. He got into science journalism after years as an ultrafast laser scientist

in the US and the UK gave him a fear of dark laboratories. He started freelancing

in during a postdoc in Italy, returning to London in 2007 for internships at The

Economist and New Scientist. He moved to the BBC in 2008, where he was

science

and technology reporter until taking up a 2013/2014 Knight Science Journalism

fellowship.

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Fernando Pérez, Physicist, Applied Mathematician, UC Berkeley

Fernando Pérez (@fperez_org) is a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory and and a founding investigator of the Berkeley Institute for Data

Science, created in 2013. He received a PhD in particle physics, followed by

postdoctoral research in applied mathematics, developing numerical algorithms.

Today, his research focuses on creating tools for modern computational research

and data science across domain disciplines, with an emphasis on high-level

languages, literate computing and reproducible research. He created IPython while

a graduate student in 2001 and continues to lead it as it evolves into the Jupyter

Porject, now as a collaborative effort with a talented team that does all the hard work. He regularly

lectures about scientific computing and data science, and is a member of the Python Software Foundation

as well as a founding member of the Numfocus Foundation. He is the recipient of the 2012 Award for the

Advancement of Free Software from the Free Software Foundation.

Thuy Huong Pham, Reporter, Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam

Pham Thuy Huong has been a reporter at Vietnam New Agency since 1999. Her

interests are Environment, Science and Education, mostly around the impact of the

environment to human health and the development of educational and science policy.

Currently she is an editor and chief of Department on Specific Issues. She was

selected to be a participant on SjCOOP Asia, a science journalism mentoring program

by WFSJ in 2013-2014.

Cheryl Phillips, Hearst Professional in Residence, Stanford University

Cheryl Phillips is a Hearst Professional in Residence at the Department of

Communications at Stanford University. She teaches data journalism and watchdog

reporting and is helping to found the Stanford Computational Journalism Lab. She

previously worked at The Seattle Times from 2002-2014. Her most recent position

in Seattle was as Data Innovation Editor. She has worked at USA Today and at

newspapers in Michigan, Montana and Texas. Cheryl has taught data journalism and data visualization at

the University of Washington and Seattle University. She also served for 10 years on the board of

directors for Investigative Reporters and Editors, a grassroots training organization for journalists and she

is a former IRE board president. Twitter: @cephillips

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Ginger Pinholster, Director, Office of Public Programs, AAAS

Ginger Pinholster is the Director of Public Programs at the American Association for

the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes the Science family of

journals. Earlier, she had served as national media relations manager at the

University of Delaware; deputy media relations manager at the National Academy of

Sciences; and media specialist at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. After

receiving her undergraduate degree in English from Eckerd College, she freelanced

for the St. Petersburg Times, and later held staff positions at the Northeast Georgian, the Athens Daily

News, and EE News. Her freelance news articles have appeared over the years in Science, Popular

Science, Environmental Health Perspectives, Omni, and elsewhere. She received her M.F.A. degree from

the Queens University at Charlotte, and she is a Fellow of AAAS.

Subhransu Priyadarsini, Editor, Nature India

Subhra Priyadarsini is an award winning science journalist currently running Nature

Publishing Group’s (NPG) India operation Nature India. Subhra has been a covering

politics and sports, fashion and films, crime and natural disasters in the mainstream

Indian media for over a dozen years. She has been a correspondent with major

Indian dailies and briefly for the Observer, London. Subhra received the BBC World

Service Trust award. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio’s Hindi science

programme ‘Vigyan aur Vikas’ (Science and Development). Subhra won acclaim in India for her

coverage of the Orissa super cyclone in 1999 and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

Aditi Risbud, Science Communications Officer, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Aditi is the science communications officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore

Foundation, where she provides communications expertise and guidance to the Science

Program. She also supports foundation-wide communications activities. Prior to

joining the foundation, Aditi was director of the Communications, Leadership, Ethics

and Research (CLEAR) program and a lecturing assistant professor of electrical and

computer engineering at the University of Utah. She previously held science

communications roles at public relations agency Weber Shandwick and the Molecular

Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She received a B.S. in materials science and

engineering from University of California, Davis, a Ph.D. in materials from University of California,

Santa Barbara, and a certificate in science communications from University of California, Santa Cruz.

Alessandra Santiago, Journalism Student, Stanford University

Alessandra Santiago is a Masters Student in the Earth Systems Program at Stanford

University. Her academic work involves advanced climate system modeling using 3D

animation to convey complex scientific concepts. Currently, she is working as an

independent filmmaker, partnering with UN institutions and governmental groups to tell

the story of island nations affected by climate change.

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David Secko, Associate Professor of Journalism, Concordia University, Canada

David Secko is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Concordia University

(Montréal). He previously worked as a journalist for The Scientist magazine and

Vancouver’s Tyee. Dave now studies science journalism as a scholar and is the leader

of the Concordia Science Journalism Project (www.csjp.ca). Examples of his recent

articles include the definition and testing of four models of science journalism

(Journalism Practice 7(1), 62-80; Journalism Practice 8(6), 789-808), a qualitative

metasynthesis of the experiences of a science journalists (Science Communication 34(2), 241-282) and a

narrative analysis of online commentary after science stories (Journalism 12(7), 814-831). He won a

University Research Award for his research contributions in 2011, the Dean’s Award for excellence as a

new scholar in 2010 and was awarded the Hal Straight Gold Medal in Journalism from UBC’s School of

Journalism in 2006. Dave was originally trained as a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia.

Dafna Shahaf, Researcher, Stanford University InfoLab

Dafna Shahaf is currently spending a year at Microsoft Research before joining the

faculty of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Prior to that, she was a postdoctoral

fellow at Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University,

an M.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.Sc. from Tel-Aviv

University. Dafna's research focuses on helping people make sense of massive amounts

of data. She has won a best research paper award at KDD 2010, a Microsoft Research

Fellowship, a Siebel Scholarship, and a Magic Grant for innovative ideas.

Willie Shubert, EJN, Internews

Willie Shubert is the Program Officer for Internews' Earth Journalism Network. As a

coordinator of a global network of environmental journalists, Willie helps make tools

that enable people to connect with each other, find material support, and amplify

their local stories to global audiences. In his previous position at National

Geographic Magazine, he coordinated translation for the magazine's 32 local

language partners. He holds a degree in Geography from Humboldt State University

with concentrations in cartography, environmental economics, and Chinese Studies.

Outside of work, he devotes his time to the development of a free school dedicated to community building

through education and to collaborative mapping and audio projects.

Andreas Sperling, Editor, NDR Info

Andreas Sperling was born in 1965, living in Hamburg/Germany. He is editor and

anchor for NDR Info / german public radio and tv. He is an "allrounder" but he is also

responsible for the medicine and health department of his program. Andreas is the

participant of the "Immersion in science" programme of the German National Academy

of Science (Leopoldina) and the Bosch-Foundation. Hobby is Photography.

http://www.csjp.ca/

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Volker Stollorz, Science Journalist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Cologne

Volker Stollorz is a biology graduate, book author and freelance science journalist. He

lives in Cologne and works for the most prestigious German media organizations

including the newspaper daily (Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung), national

magazines (STERN) and the public television channel WDR. He is a member of the

German Science Journalists Association and has been awarded numerous

prizes for his work, including the renowned Georg von Holtzbrinck Prize for Scientific

Journalism.

Richard Stone, International Editor, Science

Richard Stone oversees Science Magazine's international news coverage. Rich has

been with the magazine since 1991. From 2000 to 2012, he served as a foreign

correspondent for Science, starting out in Cambridge, U.K., as Science’s European

Editor and as a Visiting Writer at the University of Cambridge. The last stop on his

overseas tour was Beijing, where he opened the magazine’s Asia bureau in 2007. He

returned to Science’s home office in Washington, D.C., in early 2013. Rich has

been a Fulbright Scholar twice, in Russia in 1995-96 and in Kazakhstan in 2004-05,

and he has visited North Korea six times and counting over the last decade for

reporting on science in the Hermit Kingdom. Rich has contributed to Discover,

Smithsonian, and National Geographic magazines, and is the author of the nonfiction book "Mammoth:

The Resurrection of an Ice Age Giant."

Jonathan Stray, Data Journalist, Computer Scientist and Head of The Overview Project

Jonathan Stray leads the Overview Project for the Associated Press, a Knight

News Challenge-funded visualization system to help investigative journalists

make sense of very large document sets, and teaches computational

journalism at Columbia University. Formerly he was an interactive editor at the

Associated Press, a freelance reporter in Hong Kong, and a senior computer

scientist at Adobe Systems. He has contributed stories to The New York Times,

Foreign Policy, Wired and China Daily. He has an MSc in computer science

from the University of Toronto and an MA in journalism from the University of

Hong Kong.

Harry Surjadi, Freelance Science Journalist, Indonesia

Harry Surjadi, founder and chairman of the Society of Indonesian Science

Journalists, has been working as a science journalists specialized in

environmental issues for 25 years. He was a Knight International Journalism

Fellow in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012. He was a group leader of SjCOOP

Asia. In 2013 he received the Communication for Social Change Award from

the University of Queensland, Australia.

http://jonathanstray.com/

http://overview.ap.org/

http://www.compjournalism.com/?p=6

http://www.compjournalism.com/?p=6

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Mariko Takahashi, Science journalist, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

Mariko Takahashi is senior staff writer at The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's

leading newspapers and vice president of the Japanese Association of Science and

Technology Journalists. She was employed by The Asahi Shimbun as a journalist in

1979, and has been staff writer of science news section, Tokyo, staff writer and

editor of Monthly Science KAGAKU ASAHI, deputy editor of the science news

section, Osaka, editorial writer and science editor. Nowadays she contributes stories

to WEBRONZA, an opinion website maintained by The Asahi Shimbun

(http://webronza.asahi.com/). She holds a B.Sc. Degree in Physics from the Tokyo

University.

Shara Tonn, Journalism Student, Stanford University

Shara Tonn is a recent graduate from Stanford University with an M.S. in Earth

Systems, an interdisciplinary environmental science degree. Over the past year,

she has made the transition from science to communications, interning at KQED

Science Radio and the Stanford News Service. She is excited about doing

multimedia science journalism by day while practicing and performing improve

theater – her second passion – by night. Born and raised in Tennessee, Shara loves

to travel and has lived overseas in Japan, Italy and Australia.

Dana Topousis, Head of Office of Legislative and Public Affairs, NSF

Dana Topousis joined NSF in 2006 as the acting head of the Office of Legislative

and Public Affairs. In addition to leading a diverse office of about 60 employees,

Ms. Topousis oversees the media relations, web, multimedia, social media, and

speechwriting teams at NSF. She and her team are experts in executive

communications training, issues management, strategic communications, media

relations and messaging. Prior to joining NSF, Ms. Topousis was

communications director for NOAA’s National Marine Protected Areas Center.

She served as a senior account executive for Fenton Communications, managed

m

ns for Conservation International, and served as deputy press director for the a

http://webronza.asahi.com/

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Caroline Wichmann, Head of Press and Public Relations, German Science Academy

Caroline Wichmann has been active in science management for 17 years. As

a graduate in political science, public administration and media affairs

management, she is keenly aware of the instrumentality of press and publicity

work and mindful of the expectations of various target groups. Before taking

over the position of spokesperson and Director of the Department of Press

and Public Relations at the German National Academy of Sciences

Leopoldina she was employed in cooperative French-German projects as well as in the fields of press and

public relations. Caroline Wichmann set up the Department of Press and Public Relations at the

Leopoldina and adapted it to the new responsibilities attendant to a National Academy of Sciences,

namely, science-based policy advice. Her primary field of interest lies at the intersection of science and

media and the challenges of communication therein.

Ron Winslow, Deputy Bureau Chief Health/Science, The Wall Street Journal

Ron Winslow is Deputy Bureau Chief Health/Science at The Wall Street Journal. He

has been a reporter and editor at the Wall Street Journal for 32 years, including more

than 25 covering health and medicine. Earlier, he taught journalism at his alma

mater, the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of Hard Aground, the

Story of the Argo Merchant Oil Spill; co-author of Open and Shut (a true crime

story) and was a co-writer of NOVA, the book published in commemoration of the

10th anniversary of the PBS science program. In 2011, he won the Victor Cohn Prize

for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. He is past President of the National

Association of Science Writers and was founding board member of the Association of Health Care

Journalists.

Documents

2nd Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data … · 2nd Kavli Symposium on Science Journalism: Data Mining ... Chul Joong Kim, Kathryn O’Hara, Thuy Huong Pham, ... 2nd Kavli