Data Journalism lecture - Week 3: Start working with Data - Spreadsheets, basic newsroom math. Lecture date: 23 Sep 2015 MA in Journalism National University of Ireland, Galway Title slide image from The Data Journalism Handbook

1. DATA
JOURNALISM
Dr. Bahareh Heravi
Bahareh.Heravi@insight-centre.org
Week 3
Start working with Data

2.
START
WORKING
WITH
DATA

3. What to look for in data?
Trends Contrast Outliers
Source:
infogram
training

4. Start
working
with
Excel
Sort
and
Filter
Simple
math
func9ons:
Sum
Average
Median
Rate
Percentage
change

5. Sort
and
Filter

6. Open
CSO
Crime
Sta9s9cs
hBp://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Sta9re/SelectVarVal/define.asp?
MainTable=CJQ03&ProductID=DB_CJ&PLanguage=0&Tabstrip=&PXSId=0&SessID=226
1873&FF=1&grouping1=201110261037123737&grouping2=201110261038503737&r
equency=4

8. Simple
math
func9ons:
Sum
Measures
of
centrality

9. Sum
To
add
up
a
set
of
numbers.

10. Measures
of
Centrality
Average
(mean):
Total
of
the
value,
divided
by
the
numbers
of
value
Median:
The
middle
value
of
an
ordered
list
of
values
Mode:
The
most
common
value
hBps://www.mlsplayers.org/salary_info.html

11. Percentage
change
Comparing
new
to
old.
Formula:
(new
–
old)/old
*100

12. Percentage
change:
(new
–
old)/old
*
100
(613
–
574)/574
*
100
0.067
*
100
=
+6.79%

13. Rate
Event
happening
per
number
of
popula9on,
e.g.
accident
in
county
per
10,000
people
Formula:
Event
figure
/
popula;on
*
‘per’
unit

14. event
figure/popula9on
*
‘per’
unit
613
/
250,653
*
100,000
=
244
613
/
250,653
*
1,000
=
2.44
Popula9on
of
Galway?
CSO

15. Hands-­‐on/Exercise:
1-­‐
Percentage
change
of
thej
crime
between
2014
Q1
and
2015
Q1
for
all
Garda
division
in
Ireland.
2-­‐
Rate
of
thej
crimes
in
all
coun9es
in
Ireland
(with
respect
to
the
listed
Garda
divisions).
Tip:
For
Crime
rate
look
for
popula;on
sta;s;cs
in
CSO,
try
to
merge
the
two
tables,
and
not
to
copy
and
paste
each
figure
manually.

16. Resources:
Data
Journalism
Handbook,
Chapter:
“Understanding
Data”.
Newsroom
Math
Cheat
Sheet,
by
Steve
Doig
Data
Smart
book,
John
Foreman.

17.
TOOLS

18. Fusion
Tables

19.
QuesGons?
@Bahareh360
Bahareh.Heravi@insight-­‐centre.org