Journalists today are faced with an overwhelming abundance of data – from large collections of leaked documents, to public databases about lobbying or government spending, to ‘big data’ from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. To stay relevant to society journalists are learning to process this data and separate signal from noise in order to provide valuable insights to their readers. This talk will address questions like: What is the potential of data journalism? Why is it relevant to society? And how can you get started?

1. 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

3. 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”

4. WHAT
ARE
THE
PROMINENT
EXAMPLES?

5. Examples
1.
PuPng
news
into
context
with
data
h8p://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/oct/31/europe-­‐
unemployment-­‐rate-­‐by-­‐country-­‐eurozone

6. “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’

7. The
Guardian
Datablog:
‘journalism
as
a
source
of
data’

8. 2.
Data-­‐driven
invesYgaYve
journalism

9. 3.
News
apps
as
research
tools
for
journalists
and
audiences
h8p://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

10. WHY
DOES
DATA
JOURNALISM
MATTER?

11. “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?

12. 1.
New
forms
of
gathering
informaYon,
new
forms
of
knowledge
producYon,
new
forms
of
presentaYon
and
disseminaYon
of
stories.
Why
does
it
ma8er?

13. "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

14. “I
am
Nate
Silver,
Lord
and
God
of
the
Algorithm”
(Jon
Stewart,
2012)
Geeks
vs.
pundits:
The
clash
of
two
epistemological
cultures

15. 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)

16. 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?

17. 3.
PotenYal
for
the
media
as
a
business
Why
does
it
ma8er?

18. databases
comprise
75%
of
overall
traffic

19. Yme
on
page
substanYally
higher
than
on
other
secYons
of
the
Guardian

20. IS
DATA
JOURNALISM
NEW?

21. Data
journalism
wasn’t
born
yesterday

22. John
Snow’s
map
of
cholera
outbreaks
in
19th
century
London

24. HOW
TO
DO
DATA
JOURNALISM
IF
YOU
ARE
NOT
THE
NEW
YORK
TIMES?

25. Apply
for
grants:
journalismfund.eu
journalismgrants.org
h8p://www.journalismfund.eu/migrants-­‐files

26. Find
a
media
partner
h8p://quoi.info/wp-­‐content/uploads/
data_art/en/

27. More
examples
of
data
journalism
in
small
newsrooms:
globaleditorsnetwork.org/programmes/data-­‐journalism-­‐
awards/

28. WHAT
SKILLS
DO
YOU
NEED?

29. Source:
Cindy
Royal,
2013,
niemanlab.org

30. 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)

31. 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

32. WHERE
TO
START

33. 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.

34. datadrivenjournalism.net

35. 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

36. datajournalismhandbook.org

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. schoolofdata.org

41. schoolofdata.org

42. open.journalismcourses.org

43. ire.org/nicar/

44. 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

45. WEBSITE:
datadrivenjournalism.net
BOOK:
datajournalismhandbook.org
COURSE:
datajournalismcourse.net
MAILING
LIST:
ejc.net/ddj-­‐list
TWITTER:
@ddjournalism
EMAIL:
bounegru@ejc.net
WEBSITE:
lilianabounegru.org
EMAIL:
liliana.bounegru@gmail.com
TWITTER:
@bb_liliana