<b>journalism</b>: Emerging data journalism practices

Jonathon Hutchinson@dhutchman

jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au

Today

• The rise of data, even big data• Explore data journalism• Emerging opportunities• Data collection• Data visualisation• Incorporating data journalism into your

project

http://xkcd.com/77/

http://live.wsj.com/video/is-this-the-world-most-connected-man-in-the-world/465EDB01-B1BE-4764-BA1C-81C2CF898A1F.html#!465EDB01-B1BE-4764-BA1C-

81C2CF898A1F

Chris Dancy

Data Journalism

• New archival tools enable journalists to reveal new relationships, trends or anomalies

• Journalists do not need statistical skills, they need to determine the newsworthy-ness of data

• Coupled with crowdsourcing, data journalism is a very powerful format

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/sep/12/full-list-mps-expenses-ipsa-data-interactive-2013

The current 2013 MP Expenses version:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/08/how-the-guardian-is-pioneering-data-journalism-with-free-tools/

Check out “How The Guardian is pioneering data journalism with free tools”

By Jonathon StrayNieman Journalism Lab

But it’s not all roses…

1. Automating research changes the definition of knowledge

2. Claims to objectivity and accuracy are misleading

3. Bigger data are not always better data

4. Not all data are equivalent

5. Just because its accessible doesn’t make it ethical

6. Limited access to big data create new digital divides

Boyd and Crawford, 2012

Mobile Health

Potential sources

• Publically available or commercially sold databases

• Electronic bulletin boards• Government, business and agency electronic

records• Specialised databases by news organisations

Problematic DBs…

• Not always available• Potentially incorrect• No governmental commitment to providing

these records• Lack of knowledge and/or funds to support

databases

NHK and Disaster Journalism

• http://www.nhk.or.jp/datajournalism/about/index_en.html

Social media DBs

• Public voice on issues, events, people, etc.• Constantly updated• Variety of voice• Draws on rich media and not text alone• Direct from the platform to you

Social media DB problems

• High noise to signal ratio• Difficult to determine sentiment• Marginalised opinion• Requires follow up qualitative research• You may not receive the ‘fat pipe’ from the

platform provider

http://rappers.mdaniels.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Conclusions

• Lots of data available – institutional and personal

• Can be contentious data• Provides new stories and approaches• Requires additional, supportive research• Free tools to capture, analyse and visualise

This week:

• Check out Storify:

https://storify.com/