INTRO to
Data Journalism
Agustin Armendariz and Kendall Taggart
(h/t Jennifer LaFleur)
At the University of South Carolina, March 2014
Why should you care?
13 percent unemployment rate for 20-24 year olds
Basic data analysis skills will help get you a job
#Nicar14 job board
Why data journalism?
- Powerful figures are in the data
EXAMPLE: Wasted in Wisconsin
EXAMPLE: ESPN examines stadium food
Finding: At 28 percent of the venues, more than half of the concession stands or restaurants had been cited for at least one "critical" or "major" health violation.
WHy data journalism?
EXAMPLE: Associated press follows stimulus money
Combining datasets: Bridge inspections + stimulus funding
FINDING: Some of the nation's worst bridges did not get stimulus funding.
EXAMPLE: PRIME HEALTHCARE
There is news in the outliers.
Caution: this slide contains extreme nerdiness - it's Lafleur's fault
WHY Data Journalism?
EXAMPLE: NPR
EXAMPLE: California Watch
California has the toughest building regulations.
Schools must be safe.
why data journalism?
EXAMPLE: THE Center for investigative Reporting
Press releases disproportionately highlight Mexican citizens
4 of 5 Border Patrol drug busts involve US citizens
WHY Data Journalism?
EXAMPLE: Opiate Prescriptions
eXAMPLE: California watch
Schools in our area with faulty construction
eXAMPLE: Propublica
Developing A data Frame of mind
If something is:
- inspected
- licensed
- purchased
- enforced
...there is probably a database
DEVELOPING DATA FRAME OF MIND
If there is:
- a form
- a report
...there is probably a database
Example:
DEVELOPing a data frame of mind
Is there a sensor?
Where do you find data?
- Online: easy to download or requires scraping
SOME DATA AVAILABLE ONLINE:
WHERE do you find data?
example: creating your own data
University of California Los Angeles expense report
EXAMPLE: CREATING YOUR OWN DATA
Where do you find data?
Requesting data
Sample state and federal FOIAs are available at:
-
All states: http://www.nfoic.org/state-sample-foia-request-letters
- Federal: http://www.nfoic.org/sample-foia-request-letters
NFOIC also has a list of FOIA experts in each state available on its website.
requesting data
Dealing with pushback
Common excuses:
• It’ll be really expensive.
• It’s too complicated for you to understand.
• It’s too big a dataset.
• It contains private information.
• Privatization – a third party company controls the database.
Requesting data
Strategies:
Tools for data analysis:
- Spreadsheets (Excel)
- Databases (Access, SQlite, MySQL)
- Statistics (Excel, R, SPSS, Pandas)
- Mapping (Fusion Tables, QGIS, ArcGIS)
- Programming (Python, Ruby)
Questions?
Augie:
email: aarmendariz@cironline.org
phone: 510.809.3173
Kendall:
What is Data Journalism?
By kendall
