Digital Divide and Computer Assisted Reporting

Anna Poludenko

Digital Divide

• Imbalances of access to communication technologies alone with political and economical factors – digital divide = civil society participation in global governance.

• Journalists as watchdogs of democracy - fail.

CAR

• Computer-assisted reporting describes the use of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary to write news stories.

• The spread of computers, software and the Internet changed how reporters work. Reporters routinely collect information in databases, analyze public records with spreadsheets and statistics programs, study political and demographic change with geographic information system mapping, conduct interviews by e-mail, and research background for articles on the Web.

CAR

• To learn to understand what to look for, where to find good information, and how to weave it into a story.

Why CAR?

• CAR will helps to create, or improve, the watchdog culture of the media.

• A database, a spreadsheet, helps to get some stories that just can’t be acquired any other way.

• Add depth and detail that fascinate readers.

Example

Example

• National Budget 2013• $ 2.5 mln – a choir named after Berezin• The biggest subventions from the national

budget got the cities\towns on the eastern part of the country represented by pro-government candidates – Parliamentary Elections.

Ukraine

1. 40% of population have internet access. (Gallup)

2. 10 years ago Ukrainian officials started talking about the e-governance in the country.

3. 2011 Open Government Partnership - $4.5 mln. in 2013.

Ukraine

• Tenders and e-procurement ($200 mln. savings Georgia)

• A single data-center for all government institutions.

• $100.000 Spent on National Informatization program in 2011-2012 (National Informscience)

Everyone has a Web-siteHealth Ministry

But it Doesn’t mean that the information is there

CAR at J-School

• Teach to combine the traditional ‘nose for news’ and ability to tell a compelling story, with the sheer scale and range of digital information now available.

Finding Data

• Search engines – file-type, geodata, URL.

• Searching not for data but places where it can be.

• Data sites.

Finding Data

• Write Freedom of Information request

Interpret Data

• Undocumented• Messy• Know what you are

looking for.

• Excel • GoogleApps

Visualization is storytelling

• Make data digestible• Interactive• Personalized= tell a story