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(3) Keep PollEverywhere open

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If you have any questions, just raise your hand 🖐!

Welcome! Let's get rolling!

Today

- Homework Review: Feedback / Comments

 

- Pair Programming: Assignment 2 / 3

 

- Short Lecture: Interrogating data and avoiding pitfalls

 

- Pitch Sharing: Let's explain our pitches to one another

Homework Review

Please note that “⛔️” denotes errors that require a response from you.

Your response can be a rewrite of that section or a reflection or discussion in the comment to demonstrate that you understand thoroughly what the issue was and how to prevent it from happening again.

 

How're things going in California?

Live Election Results

https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/election-results/california/governor-recall/

Pre-election forecast

 

 

How're things going in...Germany?

Election: Sunday 9/26

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Background Info. What is this election about?
  • How do German elections work? Ground rules.
  • How do we have to think about polling data differently in a parliamentary system?

Survey

Please take a minute to fill out this survey

https://dmil.typeform.com/to/kCA4UrOC


Survey

How is Assignment 2 going?

Interrogating Data And Avoiding Pitfalls

Descriptive Statistics

(recap)

 

Summary Statistics

Measures of Central Tendency

- Mean = μ

- Median

- etc...

 

Measures of Variability

- Range

- Standard Deviation = σ

- Variance = σ2

- etc...

Do

  • "slice and dice" the data, calculating summary statistics of various subsets (pivot tables are a great way to do this)

Don't

  • Only calculate summary stats on overall data given to you

Summary Statistics

Do

  • Be aware of what you're losing when you calculate a summary statistic

Don't

  • Rely on the summary statistic alone without considering the underlying data
    • are there outliers?

    • how is the data distributed?

    • how many data points are there?

    • etc...

  • Assume your data is normally distributed

Summary Statistics

Do

  • Pay attention to time

Don't

  • Just average all the data

Summary Statistics

Do

  • Look at particular datapoints in the context of all the datapoints and provide that context to readers ("This 150 gram apple is the heaviest one in the barrel, by far")

 

 

Don't

  • Look at datapoints alone ("This apple weighs 150 grams")

Summary Statistics

Plotting

As a form of data exploration

Plotting

As a form of data exploration

  • Scatter Plots - to see the data points
  • Scatter plots or line charts to see trends over time
  • Scatter plots to see correlations between two columns
  • Bar charts to compare discrete values
  • Histograms to look at distributions
  • Line charts to see timeseries data
  • and more...

 

Tools:

- Excel or Google Spreadsheet Charts

- datawrapper.de

Do

  • Plot

 

 

Don't

  • Rely on the plot alone

Plotting

As a form of data exploration

Do

  • Plot subsets of the data
  • Make more than one plot

Don't

  • Only plot all the data in one chart type

Plotting

As a form of data exploration

Pay Attention To Distribution Of Data

Other Tips

  • Start with general exploration but quickly move on to asking targeted journalistic questions of the data
    • "Are state polls less accurate than national polls?"
    • "Which states have the lowest income?"
    • "Why is Chicago an outlier?"
  • Make sure to interrogate your editorial decisions
    • ​What variables have I pivoted by?
      • Should I be pivoting by something else?
      • Should I be filtering the data somehow?
      • What information do I lose by summarizing the data this way?
    • Am I considering the temporal element in the data?
  • Keep in mind what the data set cannot tell you. What are the limitations of the data and of your approach?

Quantitative Editing

  • Data Diary
    • How exactly did I get from the source data to what I have presented? Is my work reproducible by an editor?
      • Raw Materials
      • Documentation
      • Instructions
    • Make methodological assumptions explicit
  • Video Talk: What is quantitative editing?
  • Laura Bronner's guide to submit an article for quant edits

Pair Programming

Pair Programming

Pair Programming

 

 

Driver

Has the computer/keyboard. Is writing the formulas, charting data, etc etc....

 

Navigator

Thinking ahead, looking up how to do something, listening to the driver and bouncing around ideas...

Pair Programming

 

 

Driver

Has the computer/keyboard. Is writing the formulas, charting data, etc etc....

 

Navigator

Thinking ahead, looking up how to do something, listening to the driver and bouncing around ideas...

Pair Programming

Switch it up occasionally

Pair Programming

Assignment 3?

 

Project Preferences

 

Now that you've heard everyone's pitches...tell me who you are interested in working with and why

https://forms.gle/RqHgVTGotwQeH9Qj8

What's coming up?

  • Submit your project preferences by tomorrow
  • Project groups will be assigned over the weekend
  • I will assign some reading, and maybe a small data project, but nothing extensive...

Reporting II - Day 3 (pitfalls)

By Dhrumil Mehta

Reporting II - Day 3 (pitfalls)

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