While your story can be true, it might be wrong. That’s what New York Times data journalist Robert Gebeloff explained at the recent European Investigative Journalism Conference & Dataharvest. Check out some of Gebleoff’s tips, and a data journalism checklist.
When faced with data journalism, journalists often say “Oh, I can’t do that, it’s too complicated” [or] “I hated math in school, I really can’t take the time to learn how to do this”. However, data expert Helena Bengtsson stresses that data journalism is not that hard, and insists that every journalist should have basic knowledge of how to sort and filter a spreadsheet, and do simple calculations.
Too often, inexperienced data users accept the data they receive at face value. Data scientist Heather Krause cautions that data should be treated similar to a human source. Just as you’d do a background check on a human source before publishing what they told you, you need to understand your data.
Here are the top data journalism tweets for Feb 27-Mar 5, per our NodeXL mapping: #NICAR17 readings (@albertocairo); fake news guide collaboration (@jwyg); US visa restrictions (@ddjournalism); statistics’ interactive viz (@BrownUniversity); Guardian’s 10-point guide to ddj (@smfrogers); & more.
Here are the top data journalism tweets for Feb 20-26, per our NodeXL mapping: risky extrapolation (@albertocairo); US Congress Facebook analysis (@pewresearch); keys to good data stories (@ddjournalism); data journalism’s potential (@jburnmurdoch); Venezuela minimum wage (@CamburYMedio); & more.
Here are the hottest data journalism tweets for Feb 6-12, per our NodeXL mapping: data tips (@pilhofer); Trump tweets (@DataRemixed); 165 years of Swiss Immigration (@duc_qn); Lisa Charlotte Rost’s data blog (@lisacrost); open corporate data (@ddjournalism); & more.
Access to public information, accountability and participatory democracy may have been a reality in many countries for some time — but in Spain they sounded like a utopia. Entrepreneur Jacobo Elosua and computer technician David Cabo decided that this had to change. Their brainchild, Civio, was just recognized with the Gabriel Garcia Marquez award in innovative journalism for its Medicamentalia investigation.
What a year… We’ve been Trumped and Brexited, blitzed by bogus news, and fighting to protect good journalism pretty much everywhere. But there were flashes of hope and better days. The Spotlight movie and Panama Papers showed the world what great reporting can do. As the year draws to a close, we’d like to share the 10 most popular stories on our site that have grabbed the attention of our dear readers.
What are the hot data journalism tweets? Here are top links for Dec. 5-11: pie chart abuse (@johngrimwade); transit data tool (@ddjournalism); big data stories (@BigDataGirl); US diversity map (@PostGraphics); ddj survey (@Bahareh360); Swiss sprawl (@srfdata); dataviz types (@pol_ferrando); more.
Editor’s Note: It is with great sadness that we at GIJN announce the passing of David Donald, a much-treasured colleague and teacher in our community. David died on Saturday after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 64. We asked his longtime friend, GIJN Board Chair Brant Houston, to write this remembrance.
