Online Journalism: Theory and Practice

Week 9Lecture 1

Summer 2011

G. F Khan, PhDDept. of Media & Communication, YeungNam University,

South Koreagohar.feroz@gmail.com

Last lecture…

_Audio Journalism

This lecture…

--Organizing data and information

Mostly lecture notes are taken from the book:Journalism Next:Chapter 11: Building a Digital Audience for News by Mark Briggs

Before we start…

SurveyTime & Date for the missed classMidterm results

Average=25 Max=39 Low=5.5

Data Driven journalism

Use of database, spreadsheets, and other forms of structured or fielded data in news coverage or story development

Use of DATA for writing stories related to your topic.

Data is everywhere

• Amount of information in our lives is increasing. Need curation and filters to help it make sense

• Social media is based on programming, data and databases. Information is stored in these places and brought to you based on your logins and preferences

• First, tools to help organize your life, then data-driven journalism projects

• Most tools are free, so barrier to try new things is very low.

Organizing data and information

Personal ChallengeInformation that is as simple as the e-mails and

spam you get on a daily basis in your inbox. Professional Challenge

 Use of information as a professional journalismIt is called as “digitizing your life,” which

will eventually lead to digitizing your journalism.

“There is no such thing as information overload, only filter failure.” Clay Shirky.

IdentifyCaptureOrganize

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

Organizing data and information

Organizational Tools

• How much your are willing to pay?• Find right personal productivity

tools - Google Docs, OpenOffice, • Cloud Computing - store files

online; must have Internet access

Organizational Tools

• Specialized solutions:• Instapaper: save webpages for later

reading. http://www.instapaper.com/ • Remember the milk: To-do and task

lists http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ • Oh don’t forget: quick reminder tool that

send SMS to everyone’s cell phone, http://ohdontforget.com/ • DropBox• Basecamp: project management

system for teams

Organizational Tools

• Develop a personal productivity strategy• What you need to manage+ right

tools=personal productivity• What you need to manage?• E-mails, Quick searches (files on

your computer or stuff off the web), Pictures, To-do lists, Calendar and Contacts and even your word office – Word, Excel, PowerPoint.

Manage Your Email

Organize your e-mail. Limit the time your e-mail program is up on your screen.  And then begin to focus on other tasks and duties done. Spend no more than two minutes on every e-mail.

Create folder: “Waiting On” Folder ~ Store e-mails that you are unable to

respond without additional information “Read This” Folder ~ Store e-mails that contain attachments or

more information that can be read in 2 minutes

Data-driven Journalism• Opportunities

abound for using data in news coverage• Based on computer-

assisted reporting, but for the Web• Depth,

customization, searchability, long shelf life

Data and storytelling

• Every story is a field of data• Telling stories with data• E.g. a business reporter who produces

a profile of a local company that recently won an award may report the following:• Company name, Location, address,

city, CEO, no. of employees, years in business, annual revenue, market segment, awards, etc

Data and storytelling

• Computers & Databases helping reporters do their jobs - sort through information• Sharing data - APIs (Application

Programming Interfaces• Closed systems and absolute control

over content doesn't work in the modern newsroom• Other programmers and newsrooms

can mashup their data

Getting started

• Start with spreadsheets, move to databases• Map Mashups - stories and in breaking

news• Location-aware devices• Store data online, then convert,

organize, update, enhance

Other terms to KNOW:

API (Application Interface Programming) is a connection of data and technology exchanged between two separate Web sites.

Map Mashups is “physical location data” that is organized according to its category or information type.

Thank YouQuestions & Comments