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From Telling Stories with Data to Telling Stories with Data Infrastructures
7 January 2016, University of Amsterdam Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
Repurposing Digital Methods and the Data Sprint for Data Journalism
Data Journalism Awards: www.globaleditorsnetwork.org/programmes/data-journalism-awards/
1. How could the data journalism mainstream be reimagined?
Bounegru, L. “What Data Journalists Need to Do Differently.” Harvard Business Review.!https://hbr.org/2014/05/what-data-journalists-need-to-do-differently/
–Bounegru, L. “What Data Journalists Need to Do Differently.” Harvard Business Review, 2014
“…when journalists are building their stories exclusively around existing data collected by a small number of major
institutions and companies, this may exacerbate the tendency to amplify issues already considered a priority, and to downplay those that have been relegated or which
aren’t on the radar screens of major institutions.”
–Frontex official cited in Le Monde Diplomatique, 31 March 2014
“Le travail de Frontex, c’est la lutte contre l’immigration illégale, pas le sauvetage en mer, et ces gens-là sont morts,
ce ne sont plus des migrants.”
How could things be different?
–Bounegru, L. “What Data Journalists Need to Do Differently.” Harvard Business Review, 2014
“Data journalists should strive to go beyond established sources to find or create their own data in order to bring
about fresh reflections and insights or to bring new issues to the public’s attention.”
–Nicolas Kayser-Bril cited in Gray, J., Lämmerhirt, D. and Bounegru, L. “Changing what counts: How can citizen and civil society data be used as
an advocacy tool to change official data collection?” (2016)
“The goal of the project changed as the investigation progressed: we originally thought that we would structure existing information in order to geolocate it … and then
realised that …the story was not about the data we had but about the data we didn’t have.”
How could things be different?
From telling stories with data to telling stories with data
infrastructures
Gray, J., Gerlitz, C. and Bounegru, L. (forthcoming). “Towards a Literacy for Data Infrastructures”
– Gray, J., Gerlitz, C. and Bounegru, L. (forthcoming). “Towards a Literacy for Data Infrastructures”
“Might conceptions of data literacy which focus on increasing the effective use, uptake and transformation of
data not risk overlooking questions about how data is made – and how it might be made differently?”
From data as a resource or raw material to be mined and to extract value from …
…To accounting for the wider data infrastructures which create the socio-technical conditions for the creation,
extraction and analysis of data.
Where can we draw inspiration from to reimagine data journalism
as telling stories with or about data infrastructures?
2. Telling stories with data infrastructures: Examples from
digital methods research
Situated at the intersection between media and social
research after the digital turn
Digital methods take up the challenge of rethinking the methodological repertoires of social and cultural research by
creatively engaging with digital infrastructures and their devices
– Richard Rogers, “Political Research in the Digital Age”, International Public Policy Review, 2014
“[Digital methods] refers to repurposing online devices and platforms (such as Google searches, Facebook and
Wikipedia) for social and political research that would often have been otherwise improbable.”
– Richard Rogers, “Political Research in the Digital Age”, International Public Policy Review, 2014
“[Digital methods] encourage a sociological outlook or imagination about research opportunities that exist in online culture by following the medium rather than asking it to do
one’s disciplinary bidding.”
–Noortje Marres, “Re-distributing methods - digital social research as participatory research,” 2011
“This approach accords to digital devices, search engines chief among them, the capacity to generate potentially new
methods of social research.”
Digital methods are … !(1) an approach to studying social and political issues online (“issue mapping”, “controversy mapping”, “digital STS”) !(2) an approach to the study of digital platforms to makes visible the method and information politics of digital devices !(3) a contribution to the methodological repertoire of social and Internet studies and way to reflect on the politics of methods of these disciplines
Some examples
1. Mapping Right-Wing Formations in Europe with the web and hyperlink analysis!
The Guardian (2013) “The rise of far right parties across Europe is a chilling echo of the 1930s”.Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration
Huffington Post (2014) “Sudden Rise of Far Right Groups in EU Parliament Rings Alarm Bells Across Europe”. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elinadav-heymann/sudden-rise-of-far-right-
_b_5512961.html
New York Times (2014) “Populist Party Gaining Muscle to Push Britain to the Right”.Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/populist-party-gaining-muscle-to-push-
britain-to-the-right.html
What kinds of issues are most active amongst far right groups?
How are far right extremist groups connected to populist right and other right wing groups
online?
What are the recruitment methods of far right groups?
Are current counter-measures proving effective?
Profiles for 13 European countries.
Method!
1. Compile lists of links per country with expert input
2. Hyperlink analysis with the Issue Crawler
3. Study issues and actors in resulting networks
Greece: blood and soil and organic markets
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
Hungary: horse and yurt recruitment festivals
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
Taking back the yurt?
Findings
Right-wing politics in the North is animated by Islamophobia while the old right is still active in the South.
!New issues (e.g. environment, anti-globalisation and rights),
principles and recruitment techniques animate right wing politics in Europe today.
Counter-measures are often outdated (mismatch between activities
of the right and measures to counter them). !
2. Mapping counter-Jihadist (anti-Islamist) groups with Facebook analysis
The Guardian (2012) “Far-right anti-Muslim network on rise globally as Breivik trial opens”. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/14/breivik-trial-norway-mass-murderer
Hope Not Hate (2012) “Counter-Jihad Report”.Available at: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/counter-jihad/
Are different Counter-Jihadist groups in Europe connected? If so how?
Methods!!
1. Set up Facebook research account !
2. Submit request to join Facebook groups of interest making research intentions known in the request
!3. Use the Netvizz application to extract (anonymised)
user activity data across groups
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Findings
Facebook is an important medium for extremist groups.
!Three main clusters based on geographical proximity.
!European Counter-Jihadist groups are networked and
transnational. !
Most engaged with content is meme-like.
3. Mapping climate change adaptation with transcripts and indicators
Findings!
Both adaptation and mitigation are highly visible in negotiations.
Mitigation has been a top priority from the beginning.
Adaptation received less attention in the beginning with the exception of adaptation financing
Adaptation becomes more important in the second phase of the negotiations.
Notable stability in presence and intervention of countries.
Most active are China (representing G77), United States and Europe.
Notable exceptions include Bolivia and Philippines who are becoming more
prominent in recent negotiations.
Countries tend to be more active when they host the negotiations.
“…the negotiations on climate change have moved from mitigation to also include adaptation, an issue which could in principle be seen as a national responsibility.
Here it becomes particularly acute to justify which countries should receive aid and why. A much
debated method for doing so is the assessment of vulnerability to climate change.”
!- climaps.org
Who is vulnerable according to whom?
Climaps (2014). Available at: http://climaps.org
Vulnerability indices tend to disagree in their assessment of different countries.
Very few countries (7) are among the most vulnerable according to all three indices.
Quite a few countries (25) are simultaneously assessed to be most vulnerable and least vulnerable according to different indices.
The assessment of climate change vulnerability by means of indicators continues to be a contentious issue divide in both policy and academic communities.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
3. Telling stories with data infrastructures: Examples from
journalism
How might journalism that is aligned with the digital methods outlook look like?
• It would engage not with data as raw materials but with data infrastructures.
• It would engage with digital platforms as objects of investigation not just sources of data to tell stories about issues, platform effects or both.
• It would account for the socio-technical conditions for the creation, extraction and analysis of data as a key part of the investigation rather than a methodological footnote.
• It would take seriously the investigation’s potential to interrogate and intervene in the composition of data infrastructures.
• It may go in the direction of algorithmic accountability reporting (investigation into the “power structures” and biases inscribed in computational algorithms - Diakopoulos 2014).
Some examples from journalism
Reverse engineering Netflix’s film genres
database
How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood. The Atlantic (2014)
How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood. The Atlantic (2014)
Mapping the dynamics of misinformation on Twitter
Reading the Riots: How Riot Rumours Spread on Twitter. The Guardian (2011)
Reading the Riots: How Riot Rumours Spread on Twitter. The Guardian (2011)
Reverse engineering targeting models in email campaigns of
political elections
Message Machine: Reverse Engineering the 2012 Campaign. ProPublica (2012)
Message Machine: Reverse Engineering the 2012 Campaign. ProPublica (2012)
Mapping the French political blogosphere
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère politique" (2012)
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère politique" (2012)
Making visible the memory politics of social
media platforms
China’s Memory Hole: The Images Erased From Sina Weibo. ProPublica (2013)
4. The Winter School and the Data Sprint Format
What is the Digital Methods Winter School? What is a data sprint?
!
See: https://vimeo.com/148249099
Thank you!Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
