Data journalism for beginners
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Computerworld - You may not think you've got much in common with an investigative journalist or an academic medical researcher. But if you're trying to extract useful information from an ever-increasing inflow of data, you'll likely find visualization useful -- whether it's to show patterns or trends with graphics instead of mountains of text, or to try to explain complex issues to a nontechnical audience. There are many tools around to help turn data into graphics, but they can carry hefty price tags.
22 free tools for data visualization and analysis
Numbers can't "talk," but they can tell you as much as your human sources can. But just like with human sources, you have to ask! So what should you ask a number? Well, mathematicians have developed an entire field - statistics - dedicated to getting answers out of numbers. Now, you don't have to have a degree in statistics in order to conduct an effective "interview" with your data. But you do need to know a few basics.
Statistics Help for Journalists
In writing last week’s Guardian Data Blog piece on How to be a data journalist I asked various people involved in data journalism where they would recommend starting. The answers are so useful that I thought I’d publish them in full here. ONS stats release calendar is a good start http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/release-calendar/index.html Look at the Government data stores ( Data.gov , Data.gov.uk , Data.london.gov.uk etc). Check out What do they know, Freebase, Wikileaks, Manyeyes, Google Fusion charts. Find out where hidden data is and try and get hold of it: private companies looking for publicity, under appreciated research departments, public bodies that release data but not in a granular form (e.g. Met Office).
Where should an aspiring data journalist start? | Online Journalism Blog
Slides
Code
Data journalism is huge. I don't mean 'huge' as in fashionable - although it has become that in recent months - but 'huge' as in 'incomprehensibly enormous'. It represents the convergence of a number of fields which are significant in their own right - from investigative research and statistics to design and programming. The idea of combining those skills to tell important stories is powerful - but also intimidating. Who can do all that?
How to be a data journalist | News | guardian.co.uk
Tutos
When you come face to face with unfamiliar data, how do you proceed? How do you avoid sending you and your shiny “speed of thought” tool slamming into a dead end? Dan Murray’s got a routine — and he’s also got certain music and right-brained books to go along.
How to analyze unfamiliar data: circle, dive, and riff | datadoodle
Livres/Textes de référence
I recently spent 2 days teaching the basics of data journalism to trainee journalists on a broadsheet newspaper. It’s a pretty intensive course that follows a path I’ve explored here previously – from finding data and interrogating it to visualizing it and mashing – and I wanted to record the results. My approach was both practical and conceptual. Conceptually, the trainees need to be able to understand and communicate with people from other disciplines, such as designers putting together an infographic, or programmers, statisticians and researchers.
Data journalism training – some reflections | Online Journalism Blog
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Journalism in the Age of Data: A Video Report on Data Visualization by Geoff McGhee
Mirko Lorenz
Data-driven journalism was a buzzword in 2010. What is this really? A short-lived trend or "ray of hope" for journalism?
A graph showing the number of IEDs cleared from the Afghanistan War Logs Only a couple of years ago, the idea that journalists would need to know how to use a spreadsheet would have been laughed out of the newsroom. Now those benighted days are way behind us and extracting stories out of data is part of every journalist's toolkit of skills. Some people say the answer is to become a sort of super hacker, write code and immerse yourself in SQL. If you decide to take that approach, you can find a load of resources here.
