Data For Journalists

This straightforward and effective how-to guide provides the basics for any reporter or journalism student beginning to use data for news stories. It has step-by-step instructions on how to do basic data analysis in journalism while addressing why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the 21st century. In an ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism or computer-assisted reporting, Houston emphasizes that journalists are accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share. With a refreshed design, this updated new edition includes expanded coverage on social media, scraping data from the web, and text-mining, and provides journalists with the tips and tools they need for working with data.

When you combine the sheer scale and range of digital information now available with a journalist’s "nose for news" and her ability to tell a compelling story, a new world of possibility opens up. With The Data Journalism Handbook, you’ll explore the potential, limits, and applied uses of this new and fascinating field. This valuable handbook has attracted scores of contributors since the European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation launched the project at MozFest 2011. Through a collection of tips and techniques from leading journalists, professors, software developers, and data analysts, you’ll learn how data can be either the source of data journalism or a tool with which the story is told—or both. Examine the use of data journalism at the BBC, the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, and other news organizations Explore in-depth case studies on elections, riots, school performance, and corruption Learn how to find data from the Web, through freedom of information laws, and by "crowd sourcing" Extract information from raw data with tips for working with numbers and statistics and using data visualization Deliver data through infographics, news apps, open data platforms, and download links

Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News traces the emergence of data journalism through a scholarly lens. It reveals the growth of data journalism as a subspecialty, cultivated and sustained by an increasing number of professional identities, tools and technologies, educational opportunities and new forms of collaboration and computational thinking. The authors base their analysis on five years of in-depth field research, largely in Canada, an example of a mature media system. The book identifies how data journalism’s development is partly due to it being at the center of multiple crises and shocks to journalism, including digitalization, acute mis- and dis-information concerns and increasingly participatory audiences. It highlights how data journalists, particularly in well-resourced newsrooms, are able to address issues of trust and credibility to advance their professional interests. These journalists are operating as institutional entrepreneurs in a field still responding to the disruption effects of digitalization more than 20 years ago. By exploring the ways in which data journalists are strategically working to modernize the way journalists talk about methods and maintain journalism authority, Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News introduces an important new dimension to the study of digital journalism for researchers, students and educators.

Faced with a full-blown crisis, a growing number of journalists are engaging in seemingly unjournalistic practices such as creating and maintaining databases, handling algorithms, or designing online applications. “Data journalists” claim that these approaches help the profession demonstrate greater objectivity and fulfill its democratic mission. In their view, computational methods enable journalists to better inform their readers, more closely monitor those in power, and offer deeper analysis. In Computing the News, Sylvain Parasie examines how data journalists and news organizations have navigated the tensions between traditional journalistic values and new technologies. He traces the history of journalistic hopes for computing technology and contextualizes the surge of data journalism in the twenty-first century. By importing computational techniques and ways of knowing new to journalism, news organizations have come to depend on a broader array of human and nonhuman actors. Parasie draws on extensive fieldwork in the United States and France, including interviews with journalists and data scientists as well as a behind-the-scenes look at several acclaimed projects in both countries. Ultimately, he argues, fulfilling the promise of data journalism requires the renewal of journalistic standards and ethics. Offering an in-depth analysis of how computing has become part of the daily practices of journalists, this book proposes ways for journalism to evolve in order to serve democratic societies.

This book offers an interdisciplinary introduction to data journalism, offering a unique combination of critical reflection and practical insight into the field, including how data journalism is done around the world and the broader consequences of datafication in the news.

This straightforward and effective how-to guide provides the basics for any journalist or student beginning to use data for news stories. It has step-by-step instructions on how to do basic data analysis in journalism while addressing why these digital tools should be an integral part of reporting in the 21st century. The book pays particular attention to the need for accuracy in computer-assisted reporting and to both the potential and pitfalls in utilizing large datasets in journalism. An ideal core text for courses on data-driven journalism or computer-assisted reporting, Houston pushes back on current trends by helping current and future journalists become more accountable for the accuracy and relevance of the data they acquire and share. Online instructor's materials are available to adopting professors, and additional exercises are available free online to students at the below address: http://ire.org/carbook/ username: carbook password: carbook4

A cutting-edge exploration of journalism in the era of digital media technology and big and open data.

In the post-digital era, investigative journalism around the world faces a revolutionary shift in the way information is gathered and interpreted. Reporters in the field are confronted with data sources, new logics of information dissemination, and a flood of disinformation. Investigative journalists are working with programmers, designers and scientists to develop innovative tools and hands-on approaches that assist them in disclosing the misuse of power and uncovering injustice. This volume provides an overview of the most sophisticated techniques of digital investigative journalism: data and computational journalism, which investigates stories hidden in numbers; immersive journalism, which digs into virtual reality; drone journalism, which conquers hitherto inaccessible territories; visual and interactive journalism, which reforms storytelling with images and audience perspectives; and digital forensics and visual analytics, which help to authenticate digital content and identify sources in order to detect manipulation. All these techniques are discussed against the backdrop of international political scenarios and globally networked societies. This edited volume, written by renowned international media practitioners and scholars, is full of illuminating insights into digital investigative journalism and addresses professional journalists, journalism researchers and students.