Stories

596 posts Clear filters ×

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10 for 2020: COVID-19, Saving the Nile, Shape of Dreams, Visualizations for the Colorblind

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • December 21, 2020

For those unfamiliar with GIJN’s Top 10 Data Journalism roundup, each week we select the most popular data journalism items on Twitter. We do this by using NodeXL to map use of the terms #ddj and data journalism, and then add a bit of old-fashioned human curation to highlight the most compelling items. At the end of the year, we survey the entire period and pick the best from hundreds of tweets. This year — the year of the pandemic — in which the coronavirus dominated public conversation and news headlines, our mapping reflects that reality.

Data Journalism

Why Web Scraping Is Vital to Democracy

by The Markup Staff • December 17, 2020

Journalists have used scrapers to collect data that rooted out extremist cops, tracked lobbyists, and uncovered an underground market for adopted children. The Markup recently made the case for web scraping in an amicus brief before the United States Supreme Court that threatens to make the practice illegal. Here’s why they did it.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Chocolate Box Audit, Vaccine Lineup, COVID-19 Antigen Testing, Scraping Is Not a Crime

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • December 10, 2020

As the United Kingdom begins its rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccine this week, the world is watching with bated breath. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 30 to December 6 found Bloomberg tracking the development of nine of the most promising vaccines around the world, The New York Times creating an interactive for Americans to establish where they are in the line before they can get vaccinated, and Spain’s El Pais examining the advantages of using antigen testing for COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, ITV News’ Stephen Hull did a fun data analysis of the assorted chocolates in a Quality Street tin.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Scented Candles, COVID Risk Simulator, Trump’s Final Regs, Sigma Awards

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • December 3, 2020

Are scented candles a casualty of the coronavirus crisis? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 23 to 29 found researcher Kate Petrova’s data analysis revealing that scented candles have suffered a blow in online reviews and a decrease in ratings, possibly linked to the coronavirus’ ability to affect people’s sense of smell. Elsewhere, Germany’s Zeit Online created a COVID-19 infection risk calculator, the COVID Tracking Project explained how holidays and weekends disrupt the recording and publishing of virus data, and Reuters analyzed the shortcomings of the coronavirus contact tracing system in England. Meanwhile, the Sigma Awards, which celebrate the world’s best data journalism, have opened for entries.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Thanksgiving Dangers, Vaccine Tracker, Crosswords Diversity, Golf Swings, Facebook Fact-checks

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • November 26, 2020

Around the world, people are toning down their celebrations in a bid to mitigate spread of the coronavirus. The latest casualty: Thanksgiving. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 16 to 22 found FiveThirtyEight’s timely piece explaining the risk of COVID-19 transmission from even small Thanksgiving dinner gatherings. Also popular: The New York Times tracking the status of all vaccine trials in progress, and The Pudding analysis of race and gender in crossword puzzles from five major US news publications.

Data Journalism My Favorite Tools

My Favorite Tools: Alberto Cairo on Data Visualization

by Rowan Philp • November 24, 2020

For our series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke to Alberto Cairo, head of visualization at the University of Miami’s Institute for Data Science and Computing. Cairo shared several user-friendly tools and core principles to help investigative reporters shape their data visually to create new insights for audiences.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Simple Google Searches, COVID Contracts, Mining Indigenous Land, Nashville Hot Spots, Blackstone in Berlin

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • November 19, 2020

Have you ever noticed how your Google search results now appear with boxes of information extracted from the websites by the search engine? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 9 to 15 found The Markup’s new “Simple Search” browser extension, which allows you to view the best results in the “traditional” Google search format. We also discovered a visualization of the connection between members of the ruling British Conservative Party and COVID-19 contracts, InfoAmazonia’s investigation into mining requests in protected Indigenous land in the Amazon, and German daily Der Tagesspiegel showing that the American private equity group Blackstone is a major private property owner in the German capital, Berlin.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Musical Taste by Politics, Podcasts, Polling Problems, COVID Tweet Analysis

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • November 12, 2020

The US presidential election dominated the Twitter chat waves last week. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 2 to 8 found data journalists sharing live election results trackers by Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, while The Atlantic and Slate weighed in on the problems of polling. Elsewhere open source platform Mapbox is organizing an election mapping contest, and Lazer Lab created a dashboard to explore 29 million tweets related to COVID-19 shared by over half a million Americans.

Data Journalism

AI in Journalism: With Power Come Responsibilities

by Bennie Mols • November 11, 2020

Media organizations worldwide are increasingly using artificial intelligence for information gathering, storytelling, and news distribution. Journalist Bennie Mols writes that given the potential transformative power of AI in journalism media organizations must consider how best to use it to fulfill their mission while reflecting on the impacts that AI has on democracy, diversity, and public values.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Animating COVID Masks, Mapping US Campaign Cash, Homeless Arrests, Berlin Protests

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • November 5, 2020

Research shows that masks are an essential defense against the coronavirus. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 26 to November 1 finds The New York Times using animation and augmented reality to show just how masks work to filter and trap air particles that may carry the virus. This edition also includes several pieces on the United States presidential election: FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver talks to Vox about polling errors and uncertainties, freelance journalist Betsy Mason explains common shortcomings of US election maps, and NYT analyzed more than 25 million donations to Trump and Biden’s presidential campaigns.

Data Journalism My Favorite Tools

My Favorite Tools with Russia’s Roman Anin

by Olivier Holmey • November 4, 2020

In the newest post of GIJN’s series “My Favorite Tools,” French-British journalist Olivier Holmey interviews Roman Anin, the 33-year-old founder and editor-in-chief of IStories, a nonprofit Russian investigative news site. Anin discusses how he has used import/export data from the UN, as well as encryption software and data cleaning applications, in his investigations.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Ranking Halloween Candy, Formula 1, Canadian Prisons, COVID-19 Indoors

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • October 29, 2020

Gearing up for Halloween? You’ll want to refer to our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 19 to 25. We found FiveThirtyEight’s ultimate Halloween candy ranking from the archives to please the palates of finicky trick-or-treaters. This edition also includes The Economist’s mathematical model to determine whether Formula 1 racing success depends on its driver or the car engineer; The Globe and Mail examines bias in Canada’s prison system; and El Pais looks into how to reduce the probability of COVID-19 transmissions indoors.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Visualizing Hurricanes, Predicting Wildfires, Social Media Algorithms, Trump Loyalty Index

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • October 22, 2020

How does climate change increase the likelihood of weather extremes? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 12 to 18 finds ProPublica examining how the warming global climate exacerbates wildfire activity, and designer Will Chase visualizing some of the most destructive hurricanes with an interactive wheel graphic. The Financial Times is summarizing key trends of the pandemic using charts, maps, and graphics, while The Markup announced its latest project looking into the black box algorithms of social media platforms.

Data Journalism

How Data Journalists Can Use Anonymization to Protect Privacy

by Vojtech Sedlak • October 20, 2020

For data journalists there is a balancing act between publishing information vital to a story and protecting the person behind that information. Vojtech Sedlak explains the pitfalls and offers tips on how journalists can protect the people that feature in the data without compromising the story.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: A Stunning COVID Data Blunder, Beautiful News, Arctic Fires, Eviction Abuses, Isolating Students

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • October 15, 2020

The advancement of technology and availability of complex data tools has been a real boon to society, but utilizing the wrong tools for the job can have dire consequences. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 5 to 11 finds British media organizations the BBC and the Guardian reporting on a blunder by the English national health authority: it used the wrong Excel file format to store data, resulting in the loss of thousands of COVID-19 test data results. Meanwhile, German television news program ZDF heute highlighted how the Arctic has reached record high temperatures this year, DCist and Spotlight DC examined problems in the process of evictions, and we find Information is Beautiful offering a daily feed of uplifting news among the gloom of 2020’s news cycle.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Black Voter Suppression, K-Pop, Data Privacy Rights, and Global Coronavirus Deaths

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • October 8, 2020

Personal data is big business, and not only for private firms. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 21 to 27 finds a number of troubling investigations: Channel 4 News revealed that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign used personal data from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to deter Black voters from casting their ballot; Consumer Reports found that companies were making it difficult for people to opt out of having their data sold despite a landmark California law that protects individual data rights; and Noteworthy and The Business Post highlighted a concerning lack of clear regulation surrounding access to, and use of, genetic and patient data by private firms.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Death and Wealth, Internet Privacy Tool, COVID Under Control, Dataviz Colors

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • October 1, 2020

“Death is the great equalizer,” or so the saying goes. But our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 21 to 27 finds an investigation by The Boston Globe Spotlight team that proves otherwise: race and income influences how and when people die. In this Top 10 #ddj edition, we also found The Markup launching its new privacy tool, the Financial Times examining how Finland, and the cities of Madrid and New York City handled the pandemic, as well as a great guide by Datawrapper’s Lisa Charlotte Rost to choosing better colors for your charts.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Mapping the Pandemic, Shrinking Japan, Data Recipes, Extreme Temps, Google Election Searches, FinCEN Files

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • September 24, 2020

How fast is the coronavirus spreading in countries around the world? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 14 to 20 finds data visualization designer Jan Willem Tulp simulating the speed of COVID-19 infections and German television news program ZDF heute mapping how the pandemic traversed the globe. Meanwhile, Thibi Recipes explores tutoring data journalism as if you’re following a cooking recipe, the Financial Times reports on climate extremes, and ICIJ and Buzzfeed bare suspect financial data.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Border Disputes, Mediterranean Gas, Data Reporting Grants, Newsroom Cuts

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • September 17, 2020

Territorial disputes — over land, borders, or resources — are a long-standing source of tension around the world. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from September 7 to 13 finds Al Jazeera explaining the India-China dispute over a shared Himalayan border in seven maps, and the Financial Times attempting to put into context the tensions between Turkey and its neighbors competing over natural gas discoveries. We also find Stanford University and Big Local News offering data reporting grants on the pandemic, and other groups offering free data journalism workshops and webinars.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Beirut Blast, Predicting Crime, US Election Simulators, and COVID in Ukraine

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • September 10, 2020

What was the magnitude of the Beirut port blast and how did it compare to other infamous explosions in history? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 31 to September 6 finds Reuters illustrating just how powerful last month’s blast was in relation to the Chernobyl disaster and other explosions. The Tampa Bay Times highlighted how a county sheriff’s office is using an algorithm to supposedly predict and intercept the criminals of the future, while The New York Times used satellite maps to show how physical and political geographies interact across the United States. ESPN has been looking into the potential of people in college football crowds to become COVID-19 super-spreaders, and Slate analyzed the overuse of the word “murmur” in the popular Twilight novel series.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Tracking Police Accountability; Racism and Housing; China’s Hidden Prison Camps

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • September 3, 2020

The police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American man, in the United States has reignited national unrest just months after the death of George Floyd. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 24 to 30 finds ProPublica documenting police violence against Black Lives Matter protesters and tracking police accountability. The New York Times shows how the process of redlining, or denying mortgage finance to predominantly Black neighborhoods from the 1930s onwards, has resulted in heat disparities among cities, and BuzzFeed News uncovers scores of new internment camps in Xinjiang, China, by analyzing satellite data.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: North Korea Ghost Ships, Trolls Attack WHO, Al Pacino’s Wardrobe, COVID Air Travel

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • August 27, 2020

Satellite imagery has become increasingly useful in establishing evidence of human rights abuses and in shining a light on dubious activities being conducted in secretive parts of the world. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 17 to 23 finds NBC News utilizing satellite data to solve a long-standing mystery about North Korean “ghost boats” washing up on Japanese shores, The New York Times analyzing footfall data to determine how the coronavirus pandemic has influenced consumer spending, and Bellingcat revealing a coordinated network of attacks on Twitter against the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Election Forecasts, The Sweatpants Era, Hong Kong Protests, DJ in Eastern Europe & Caucasus

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • August 20, 2020

One of the biggest issues that comes with visualizing election forecasts is how to incorporate uncertainty in a way that is understandable to readers. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 10 to 16 finds FiveThirtyEight explaining their election forecast design process and considerations. Elsewhere, The New York Times Magazine has been digging into the collapse of the fashion industry, and the Hong Kong Free Press is teaming up with the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of The University of Hong Kong to expand its protest research archive.

Data Journalism

From Relationships to Ranking: Angles for Your Next Data Story

by Paul Bradshaw • August 18, 2020

British data journalism instructor Paul Bradshaw analyzed 100 pieces of data journalism and identified seven common story angles. Here, he uses real-world examples to show how common angles can generate useful story ideas, and the strategies and considerations that reporters should keep in mind.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Herd Immunity Calculator, Post-COVID Offices, Back-to-School Jitters

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • August 13, 2020

How many people need to get infected or die of the coronavirus before we reach a herd immunity threshold? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 3 to 9 finds that The Washington Post created a herd immunity calculator to estimate this. Also in the Data Journalism Top 10 this week: BBC’s Visual and Data Journalism team illustrates the future of work environments post-COVID-19, The New York Times shares projections of the potential number of children who may carry the virus back to school in the fall according to county, and Oregon Public Broadcasting discovers a surprising reason for the low incidence of coronavirus transmission in bars and restaurants in the US state of Oregon.

Data Journalism

Here’s Why Investigative Reporters Need to Know Knowledge Graphs

by Friedrich Lindenberg • August 11, 2020

Across the data science community, knowledge graphs have become a growing phenomenon in recent years, driving many applications including virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa. Friedrich Lindenberg, from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, writes about how its data platform Aleph makes use of knowledge graphs to help investigative reporters analyze and cross-reference data.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Climate Migrants, COVID Testing Disparities, Outbreak Epicenters, Brazil’s Military

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • July 30, 2020

In the midst of the pandemic, some newsrooms haven’t forgotten about the issue of climate change. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from July 20 to 26 found ProPublica partnering with The New York Times Magazine to examine climate migration and where climate refugees are moving to. On the COVID-19 front, FiveThirtyEight revealed the disparities in the availability of testing sites between Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and white areas, broadcaster RBB highlighted that the risk of coronavirus was more keenly felt by low-income earners, and the Google News Initiative and Agência Lupa communicated the impact of the coronavirus by visually putting readers at the epicenter of an outbreak.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Measuring Mask Use, Parental Interruptions, Childbirth Woes, India’s Low Death Rate

by Eunice Au & Connected Action • July 23, 2020

How widespread is mask use in your country? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from July 13 to 19 finds The New York Times mapping the odds of people encountering other mask wearers in the United States, two university professors quantifying the number of interruptions a parent suffers on average every hour while working from home, the Committee to Protect Journalists talking to data journalists about the struggles of reporting on COVID-19, and openDemocracy documenting cases of mistreatment of women in labor around the world since the pandemic started.

prev 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 22 next