Journalism in an Age of Big Data: What It Is, Why It Matters and Where to Start
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Journalism in an Age of Big Data What it is, why it ma8ers and where to start Liliana Bounegru European Journalism Centre/ University of Amsterdam University of Ghent/ University of Groningen Web: lilianabounegru.org TwiAer: @bb_liliana
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Transcript of Journalism in an Age of Big Data: What It Is, Why It Matters and Where to Start
Journalism in an Age of Big Data
What it is, why it ma8ers and where to start
Liliana Bounegru European Journalism Centre/ University of Amsterdam
University of Ghent/ University of Groningen Web: lilianabounegru.org
TwiAer: @bb_liliana
New York Times Interac2ve News and Graphics team Chicago Tribune News Apps team
“There is something about not just being able to think and act like a programmer but also to be able to think and act like a journalist, which is quite demanding. […] Newsrooms are crying out for these skills.” (Emily Bell, Professor & Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, ‘Columbia is launching a new post-‐bac program to breed journalism unicorns’, Nieman Lab, 2013)
Guardian Interac2ve Team “Journalism Unicorn”
WHAT ARE THE PROMINENT EXAMPLES?
Examples
1. PuPng news into context with data
h8p://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/31/europe-‐unemployment-‐rate-‐by-‐country-‐eurozone
“Most of what we do is this kind of very newsy, quick pieces of data journalism, that are based around stories that just happen to be in the news that day. Every news story has some data behind it and we’re here to make that accessible and surface it.” (interview with Simon Rogers, 6 September 2012)
The Guardian Datablog: ‘journalism as a source of data’
The Guardian Datablog: ‘journalism as a source of data’
2. Data-‐driven invesYgaYve journalism
3. News apps as research tools for journalists and audiences
h8p://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/
WHY DOES DATA JOURNALISM MATTER?
“One of the most important quesRons for journalism’s sustainability will be how individuals and organizaRons respond to this availability of data.”
(Emily Bell, Professor & Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, 2012)
“Data-‐driven journalism is the future.”
(Tim Berners-‐Lee, founder of the World Wide Web, 2012)
Why does it ma8er?
1. New forms of gathering informaYon, new forms of knowledge producYon, new forms of presentaYon and disseminaYon of stories.
Why does it ma8er?
"Nate Silver says this is a 73.6 percent chance that the president is going to win? Nobody in that campaign thinks they have a 73 percent chance — they think they have a 50.1 percent chance of winning. And you talk to the Romney people, it’s the same thing. . . . Anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a toss-‐up right now is such an ideologue, they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops and microphones for the next 10 days, because they're jokes." (Joe Scarborough, MSNBC, 2012)
Geeks vs. pundits: The clash of two epistemological cultures
“I am Nate Silver, Lord and God of the Algorithm” (Jon Stewart, 2012)
Geeks vs. pundits: The clash of two epistemological cultures
New forms of knowledge
“Part of what we’ve been trained, as a society, to expect out of the Big Deal JournalisYc Story is something “new,” something we didn’t know before. Nixon was a crook! Osama Bin Laden was found by the CIA and then allowed to escape! But in these recent stories, it’s not the presence of something new, but the ability to tease a paAern out of a lot of liAle things we already know that’s the big deal. It’s not the newsness of failure; . . . it’s the weight of failure.”
(C.W. Anderson, lead researcher Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2010)
2. Improving the democraYc funcYon of the media: -‐ enhancing journalisYc objecYvity -‐ more accountable journalism -‐ more efficient journalism workflows -‐ increasing ciYzen parYcipaYon in public life
Why does it ma8er?
3. PotenYal for the media as a business
Why does it ma8er?
databases comprise 75% of overall traffic
Yme on page substanYally higher than on other secYons of the Guardian
IS DATA JOURNALISM NEW?
Data journalism wasn’t born yesterday
John Snow’s map of cholera outbreaks in 19th century London
HOW TO DO DATA JOURNALISM IF YOU ARE NOT THE NEW YORK TIMES?
Apply for grants: journalismfund.eu journalismgrants.org
h8p://www.journalismfund.eu/migrants-‐files
Find a media partner
h8p://quoi.info/wp-‐content/uploads/data_art/en/
More examples of data journalism in small newsrooms: globaleditorsnetwork.org/programmes/data-‐journalism-‐awards/
WHAT SKILLS DO YOU NEED?
Source: Cindy Royal, 2013, niemanlab.org
Why learn these skills?
“There is a data science skills gap in journalism.” (Alex Howard, Tow Center report “The Art and Science of Data-‐Driven Journalism”, 2014)
“There is something about not just being able to think and act like a programmer but also to be able to think and act like a journalist, which is quite demanding. […] Newsrooms are crying out for these skills.” (Emily Bell, Professor & Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, ‘Columbia is launching a new post-‐bac program to breed journalism unicorns’, Nieman Lab, 2013)
data journalism in the newsroom
Lone rangers: Guardian Datablog
Two-‐person team:
Guardian US
Small-‐scale
team: WNYC
Large team: New York Times
Source: Simon Rogers, datajournalismcourse.net
WHERE TO START
launched in 2010.
dedicated to acceleraYng the diffusion and improving the quality of data journalism around the world.
through conferences, training courses, manuals and community building.
community of 1.500+ journalists.
datadrivenjournalism.net
70+ authors including: the New York Times, the Australian BroadcasYng CorporaYon, the BBC, the Chicago Tribune, Deutsche Welle, the Guardian, the Financial Times, La Nacion, ProPublica, the Washington Post, Zeit Online
translated into Russian, Spanish, Georgian, Ukrainian, French, Chinese, Portuguese, Greek, Macedonian (Arabic coming soon).
datajournalismhandbook.org
datajournalismhandbook.org
School of Data Journalism
Europe’s biggest data journalism event
300+ parYcipants
speakers and instructors from Reuters, New York Times, Spiegel, Guardian, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
datajournalismschool.net
Free 5-‐week online introductory course Instructors and advisors from the New York Times, Wired, Twi8er, Zeit Online and others. 21.000+ parYcipants
datajournalismcourse.net
Module 1 -‐ Data journalism in the newsroom Module 2 -‐ Finding data to support stories Module 3 -‐ Finding story ideas with data analysis Module 4 -‐ Dealing with messy data Module 5 -‐ Telling stories with visualisaYon
datajournalismcourse.net
schoolofdata.org
schoolofdata.org
open.journalismcourses.org
ire.org/nicar/
Subscribe to a mailing list: ire.org/resource-‐center/listservs/subscribe-‐nicar-‐l/ datadrivenjournalism.net/mailinglist Find or create a group in your area: hackshackers.com
CommuniYes of support
WEBSITE: datadrivenjournalism.net BOOK: datajournalismhandbook.org COURSE: datajournalismcourse.net MAILING LIST: ejc.net/ddj-‐list TWITTER: @ddjournalism EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: lilianabounegru.org EMAIL: [email protected] TWITTER: @bb_liliana
