Storytelling in a digital age - challenges of a Data Journalist
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Transcript of Storytelling in a digital age - challenges of a Data Journalist
Grüezi mitenand!
• Hille van der Kaa • Twitter: @Hillevanderkaa
• Researcher Data Journalism at Tilburg University
• Professorship Media, an interdisciplinary institute of journalism, ICT, communication, arts & economics at Fontys University of Applied Sciences
Data journalism is a journalism specialty reflecting the increased role that numerical
data is used in the production and distribution of information in the digital era.
It reflects the increased interaction
between content producers and several other fields such as design, computer
science and statistics.
(Poynter institute, 2011)
computer assisted
reporting
past
big data driven
journalism
present
automated algorithmic storytelling
future
1952 The Univac was used by CBS to predict the result of the 1952 presidential election. With a sample of just 1% of the voting population it famously predicted an Eisenhower landslide while the conventional wisdom favored Stevenson.
Computer-assisted reporting describes the use of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary to write
news stories.
Collectively this has become known as computer-assisted reporting, or CAR.
entering the jungle of Big Data an ‘information explosion’ that
generates exabytes of data every year
for example: info generated by open data government policies, digital
archiving, and human interactions in social networks …
… all these data tell stories
velocity • data comes in
quickly through multiple sources (online systems, social media etc.)
volume • from terabytes
to petabytes (and more) of information
variety • of data types
(structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data)
complexity • geographical
and multi-data center data distribution, cloud computing
data-driven journalism data-driven journalism is a process
whereby journalists build stories using numerical data or databases
as a primary material
database journalism database journalism or structured
journalism is a principle in information management whereby news content is organized around structured pieces of
data, as opposed to news stories
it focuses on the constitution and maintenance of the database
challenge 1 the line between activism and journalism has become
even fuzzier in the digital age
growing interest in investigative news organisations that operate on a non-profit model
some new players are producing
to serve a particular agenda
challenge 2 when does a study, or dataset, constitute as a reliable
source for a news story?
what does a journalist need besides the data to create a trustworthy story?
how to evaluate data?
as a news source… or?
only skilled data analysts can bridge the gap between data and knowledge, and
find the stories underneath
a new set of skills:
advanced research methods + computational methods
(data mining, data processing)
ability to select data from a broad range of data sources
ability to analyze and abstract data from a scientific perspective
ability to explore and detect abnormity in data
familiarity with various data standards & the ability to convert
ability to visualize data in graphics and text
ability to transform data in a journalistic storyline
journalism, as one of the key professions specialized in making information visible
and accessible to large audiences,
MUST BE
at the forefront of the ‘data revolution’