What's the data?

- 4392 candidates in 1999~2015

name, occupation, party, camp, votes-obtained 

- 2039 constituencies in 1999~2015

votes in total, voting rate, count of voters, population

Our project

2 dynamic webpages

1 interactive webpage

https://theinitium.com/project/20151012-hk-district-council-elections/

https://theinitium.com/project/20151012-hk-district-council-elections/

https://theinitium.com/project/20151029-hk-district-council-elections-3/desktop.html

Idea

Collect

Visualize

Analyze

Data

Data

Data

We live in a cruel world.

You always cannot get the data you want easily. 

 4+ weeks     5 people

Disaster #1  

Missing data

The government has already deleted

- 1999 disco election website

- 2003 disco election website

- candidate profiles before 2011

(for privacy protection concern)

Solution #1.1

Use Wayback Machine to find out old and deleted webpages.

Solution #1.2

Use other credible source, like....book.

Disaster #2

Messy data

- different Chinese used in different year

- short name VS full name

- parties are changing names

This is Solution #2

Disaster #3

Are "Independent" candidates really independent?

- over 60% of the candidates in 1999~2011     claimed as "independent"

      Solution #3

 - dig out their background

- find a standard to label them

- ask Professor Ma Ngok in CUHK for suggestions

What we have got...

What we have got...

25%

25%

Copy and paste info on official website

Input

manually

50%

Generated by table functions, based on raw data on official website

Idea

Collect

Visualize

Analyze

Data

Data

Data

- list a bunch of questions 

- answer them with basic calculation

Function: pivot table, sorting, sum, division

Tool: fusion tables, google sheet

Takeaways

for journalists

working in a data team

Mindset

• Large DJ project is always teamwork

• Idea makes you irreplaceable

Skills

• Collect information  

• Writing 

• Organize and analyze data with    table

• Visualization 

             infographic, interactive webpage,  animation, ...

wise

As for this part,

      Visualization

      infographic, interactive webpage,  animation, ...

• You can always turn to programmers and designers
• Learn some jargon 
• Get to the point, avoid using vague descriptions
• Make prototypes

Tool list:  Google Sheets, Fusion Tables, Tableau, Baidu Echarts, Kumu,..., sketches!