1. Telling Stories With Data
“The Data is Dead! Long live the Data!”

2. #ddj
#ejc

3. Alan McLean
•
@alanmclean
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Art/Design/Development background
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Worked at CBC.ca 2005-2007
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Working at the NYTimes in 2007-Present
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Afghanistan War Logs
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2008 Election
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2008 Olympics
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2010 Olympics
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Guantanamo Docket
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Document Viewer
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Run-Well
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more...
Dom Data: flickr.com/photos/ogil/2499892047

4. Interactive
News
Technology
@

5. Interactive
News
Technology
@
Eric - flickr.com/people/74486811@N00

6. The old
newsroom/developer
relationship
Developer Journalist

7. The new
newsroom/developer
relationship
Developer/Journalist

8. Use the web to tell a story, not
just as a delivery medium.

9. Newsroom Tools
Developing at close to newsroom pace
is now possible

10. Journalism Saved!

11. It’s almost too easy...
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Lots of tools, often free or very affordable.
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Progressive Enhancement.
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An unlimited supply of “pages”.
<3m

12. Data Dumps
Large collections of source material that aim to
inform, but ultimately over-saturate.

13. Data Dumps
“ Your scientists were so
preoccupied with whether or not
they could, they didn't stop to
think if they should.”
Dr. Ian Malcolm
Jurassic Park (1993)
via @kevinq, Graphic Editor at the NYT

18. Data Dumps
“ If you won't find narratives in
the data, you might as well be
posting the phone book.”
@harrisj via Twitter

19. Why are data dumps a problem?
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Fail to inform clearly.
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It’s very easy to get lost.
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They take up precious time.
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They are usually low impact.
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Often bland.

20. It’s far too easy to distract or confuse
an already compromised online
attention span.

21. Editing is crucial online
•
Should we be doing this?
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What is the point?
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Will any of our readers/users care?
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Is this going to be a core component of the story, or
merely supplemental?

22. Design Decisions Are Editorial
Statements

25. The Afghanistan War Logs
<5m

26. The Afghanistan War Logs
•
Three publications with access to the data under a
release agreement.
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90,000+ incident reports.
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Spans several years of the conflict in Afghanistan.
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A lot of metadata...

27. The Afghanistan War Logs
What can we do with this data?
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Data Dives!
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Maps!
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Timelines!
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Charts!
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and so so much more...

28. The Afghanistan War Logs
What should we do with this data?
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Aggregate representations of the reports were out.
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Maps needed to be “Locator Maps”.
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Timelines? Yes.
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Incident Charts?
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Story integration? Yes! Context was needed.
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Could not publish them all... redactions were necessary.

29. The Afghanistan War Logs
The Package
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3 articles.
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1 note to the readers from the Editor.
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1 background article on the data.
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An incident report interactive.
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A page tying it all together.

30. The Afghanistan War Logs
Locator Maps
The Article
Timeline
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Lead with a Map
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Removed the ads
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Flopped the columns
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Forced a single page view
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Relevant maps and photos Photos/Maps
were loaded alongside text
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Stylized report text within article
Incident Report Text

31. The Afghanistan War Logs
The Maps

34. The Afghanistan War Logs
Context

35. The Afghanistan War Logs
Context

36. The Afghanistan War Logs / The Interactive

37. Real Titles Stylized NYT Redactions The Jargonizer Real Summaries
The Afghanistan War Logs / The Interactive

38. The Afghanistan War Logs / The Series Page