Institutefor

AnlyticJournalism

Institutefor

AnlyticJournalism

Prof. Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism

Santa Fe, New Mexico USAt o m @ a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . o r g

Analytic Journalism: Investing in an Intellectual Portfolio

to Secure Journalism's Financial Future

Durban, South Africa11 September 2006

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Journalism is…

“The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.'‘ —Bill Kovach

Committee of Concerned Journalists

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What journalists do

The job of journalists is "to monitor the centres of power."                                                                                        Israeli

journalist  Amira Hass

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Today’s objectives

Discuss journalism (and journalists) as a species existing in the Datasphere

Review the changes in the information environment

Suggest steps journalism can (Should? Must?) take to adapt to those changes if we are to survive

Suggest the possible disappearance of the species journalist serioso

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Analytic thinking/journalism

What is it? Where did it come from? How does it work? What are the necessary variables?

Frame the appropriate question Find and retrieve appropriate data Use appropriate analytic tools Show what you know with story-

appropriate media

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The why and the wherefore of Analytic Journalism

Dramatic change in info environment Changes in how modern societies

relate to datainformation What is Analytic Journalism? Objectives of the Institute for

Analytic Journalism

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The Changing Datasphere

Laws

Econ

Demographics

Entertainment

News

The Datasphere:that conceptual environment where all data all data existsexists in all forms, all media

Cultural knowledge

All of history

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Species in the Datasphere

Lawyer

Economist

Insurance

adjuster

Driver of garbage truck

Journalist

The Datasphere:

that conceptual environment where all information-information-processing processing speciesspecies reside

Teacher

Historian

Cop

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Communications Revolution

1st Era =

Symbols Print Paper Ink Writing

2nd Era =

3rd Era = 10101010101010101010101000101110

0101

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How big is the change?

93% of ALL information – audio, video, print – produced worldwide in 2003 was originally in digital format

See UC-Berkeley study on Dataspherehttp://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/index.html

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Major trends in dynamic Major trends in dynamic DatasphereDatasphere

Definition of literacy expands “Transparency”

Global Governments, NGOs, corporations

Data acquisition power shift to individual “Available Data Index” &

“Journalism Info/Utility Index”

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ADQ: “Available Data Index”

High

Low

ADI

Time

Digital Revolution

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JIQ: “Journalism Info/Utility Index”

JII

High

Low

Digital RevolutionAvail. Data Index

Time

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JIQ: “Journalism Info/Utility Index”

High

Low

Avail. Data Index

High

Low

Digital Revolution

High

Citizens’ Zone of

Contempt, Disregard,

Irrelevance, for the press

JII

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Journalism and pre-Digital Revolution

Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism

Canon of Ethics Constitutional freedoms/ legal restrictions

History of Profession

Journalism education: “To serve the profession,” not lead

RW-P processReporting Writing Publishing/Producing

Good at description; far less good at analysis

Journalist as “white-hunter poet” (aka “General Assgn. Reporter”)

Driven by adrenalin, not intellect

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Attributes of Digital Revolution

Data -- public and private -- in 1s and 0s divorced from physical media

Cheap, powerful desktop & communications hardware

Cheap, powerful analytic tools Constant, rapid change in Datasphere

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Effects of Digital Revolution

Fluid, ubiquitous data and results Reproducible data and info without

cost. How to add value? New definitions of literacy RRAW-P Process

ResearchReporting Analysis Writing Publishing/Producing

Need for constant teaching/learningHow did journalism respond?

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Journalism and post-Digital Revolution

Post-Digital RevolutionChanges

Various circulation and marketing strategies, e.g. zoning, newspaper-TV ties, etc.

Eventually, PCs/I-net in offices & newsroom

“Soft news”

Shovelware web sites

CAR (Computer-assisted Reporting)

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1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101

010100101010

Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism

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Leading-edge journalism in Digital Age

CAR (Computer-assisted Reporting)

Acquiring or creating digital data sets

Learning/utilizing new – for journalism –knowledge/analysis tools, i.e. sprdsheets, DBF, simple stats, GIS to make maps

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1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101

010100101010

Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism

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Retrieve/adapt methodologies from other disciplines

Analytic Journalism in Digital Age

01010100100110101101010101001010101001010101010010101010101100100101100101010001010

1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101

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Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism

Anthropology

Geography

Biology

CriminologyAccounting

Data Mining

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AJ “borrowed” methodologies

GIS Epidemiology; Urban planning; Enviro-sciences;

Crime analysis; Cyberspace; Mapping of Concepts

Computational Linguistics (King and Lowe’s “Rare Events in International Conflict”)

http://gking.harvard.edu/files/infoex.pdf

ThemeRiver http://www.pnl.gov/infoviz/infoviz/themeriver.pdf

Forensic Accountinghttp://www.forensicaccounting.com/home.html

Visual Statistics & Complex Adaptive Systems- Web Map http://www.webmap.com/ - Epstein, Steinbruner and Parker. “Modeling Civil Violence: An Agent-Based Computational Approach” http://www.brook.edu/es/dynamics/papers/cviolence/cviolence.pdf

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Focus always international Retrieve/adapt methodologies from

other disciplines IAJ: hinge between other disciplines/

methodologies and journalism Adopt new analytic tools appropriate

for journalism, e.g. AskSam, Cartagio, ArcGIS

Focus on making data – broadly defined – available for user customization and analysis

Analytic Journalism in Digital Age

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Hunter College-NYTimes satellite maps of WTC disaster

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John Snow’s aledged cholera map- London - 1854

John Snow’s alleged cholera map

London - 1854

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Urban Planning Sat. Pics-Lotlines

Urban Planning Tax assessments Public utilities/services Traffic Planned growth? Sprawl? Educational planning

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Environmental Planning – watershed map

English River Watershed Study by students in

Mid-Prairie Middle School Kalona, Iowa

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Portland, Oregon Crime mappingNote how database

produces graph and map. Portland, Oregon site at http://www.portlandpolicebureau.com/crimemapper.html

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Conceptual mapping of cyberspace

VR visualization of Web traffic

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PowerPlayers1Mapping power relationshipshttp://theyrule.orgo.org/

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“ThemeRiver” computational linguistics and resulting visualization of news story themes.

“Theme River” computational linguistics

and resulting visualization of news story topics.

Curves indicate “tension index” over time

Source: http://www.pnl.gov/infoviz/graphics.html

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Online enterprise Dynamic system model

Source: http://www.simventure.com/models.html

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Data mining – advanced Business Intelligence software

http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s

%253D1738%2526a%253D7640,00.asp

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Database software – online and shrinkwrapped

http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%3D400%26a

%3D14601,00.asp

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Some Analytic Journalism teaching materials

Statistics - http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/stat2.htm E-mail tracing - http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/tracing.htm Middleberg/Ross survey -

http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/cyber7.htm Covering the Census, with GIS -

http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/census.htm Basic numbers skills -

http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/NUMBER12.htm Evaluating what you find -

http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/eval.htm Calculator for confidence levels in polls -

http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/confross.htm

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Inst. for Analytic Journalism

General Systems TheoryStatisticsVisual Statistics and Infographics

Simulation modeling

Our “Cornerstones”

Institutefor

AnlyticJournalism

Institutefor

AnlyticJournalism

Prof. Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism

Santa Fe, New Mexico USAt o m @ a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . o r g

Analytic Journalism: Investing in an Intellectual Portfolio

to Secure Journalism's Financial Future

Durban, South Africa11 September 2006