Acts of Journalism

Data-Driven Storytelling

https://fivethirtyeight.com/contributors/dhrumil-mehta

Data Scraping / Cleaning / Structuring

Building a Database

Building Software

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

News Quiz

Bots

Internal Workflows

Bots

Lets readers see results that FiveThirtyEight deems unexpected

Expectations are calibrated before results ever start coming in.

Open Data

data.fivethirtyeight.com

https://www.datajournalismawards.org/project-listing/?project_id=2082

Quantitative Editing

Types of Data Stories

Counting Stuff

Answer a question with data

Support/Oppose a hypothesis

Identify a Phenomenon

Identify a Phenomenon

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-media-really-has-neglected-puerto-rico/

Debunk or Justify Conventional Wisdom

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-polls-are-all-right/

Data-Driven Profile

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

Lack of Data

Data driven investigative work

Dig for Data

Provide relevant context

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/

Build our own dataset

• With Code / Scrapers
• By Hand
• By Survey Tool

Archiving Data

Explain Calculations

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/science-isnt-broken/

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/not-even-scientists-can-easily-explain-p-values/

Use Innovative Methodology

Use data to inform traditional reporting

The Rare Datapoint

Challenging Official Data

https://gijn.org/2021/06/28/how-local-reporters-in-india-exposed-the-pandemics-true-death-toll/

Huge Data Dump

• Uber
• Election Results
• Census

Homework

✏️ Read NYC Data Stories 

https://forms.gle/fJar2F5HAZTYmiTBA