Deutsche Welle, Direktion Distribution - Innovation Projects
Mirko Lorenz, Information Architect • Innovation ProjectsIJ-7 - Innovation-Journalism Conference, Stanford - 7-9 June 2010
DATA-DRIVENJOURNALISMWhat is there to learn?
Data-driven journalism
Will journalists need to learn how to code?
Does the audience really care for data?
How can a journalist make money with this?
Workflows?
Where is the data?
News offerings are packages
Easy to use(30 minutes for overview)
Delivered to front door Classifieds for jobs, houses, cars,....
Central place for debate
Best way to reach (local, specific) audiences through advertising
Fallen to pieces, what‘s next?
Opportunity to connect
DATA-DRIVEN JOURNALISM
Main points of this talk:
- Basics: What is data-driven journalism?
- Process: What is there to learn for journalists/media?
- Motivation: How can journalists use data to create value?
Connecting journalism and
data
Perspective on data
„The sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. People think I’m joking, but who would’ve guessed that computer engineers would’ve been the sexy job of the 1990s? The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill.“ - Hal Varian, Google Chief Economist, McKinsey Quarterly, Jan. 2009
Shouldn‘t journalists be part of this?
Heretic view: When was the last time media really solved a problem for anyone?
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What is data-driven journalism?
Data-driven journalism is a workflow
1. Digging deep into (big) data (scrape, cleanse, structure)
2. Mining for „nuggets“ of information (filter)
3. Visualizing information in graphics or multimedia specials
4. Connecting classic storytelling with otherwise dry statistics
5. Creating media that has value for readers/users
A measure for value could be that users of such offerings are willing to pay $5, $10 because the value of the information presented is so obvious.
Who can benefit from data-driven journalism?
Readers/Users: Looking for in-depth answers, not „more of the same“
Journalists: Do a new form of „reporting“, understand the patterns that surround us
Publishers/Media:Entering a field where converged formats create relevant value
Visual Designers: Needed for innovative presentation of "information nuggets"
Data-specialists/programmers: Apply their knowledge of data-mining, data integration and analysis
Why we need new forms of reporting
USERS ARE INCREASINGLY BORED
http://www.ap.org/newmodel.pdf
THEY SEARCH FOR INSIGHTS, BUT IT‘S FRUSTRATINGLY DIFFICULT
http://www.ap.org/newmodel.pdf
Participants in this study did show signs shallow and erratic news
consumption. People wanted more depth and were trying to find it.Unfortunately their attempts to
substantiate and validate stories were not actually getting them anything
new.
EVERYDAY LARGE AMOUNTS OF INFORMATION VANISH BECAUSE THEY ARE PUBLISHED IN PRINT OR TV
Why we need data-driven journalism...
Online work to be 'data-driven'Posted: 16/10/02 By: Caroline White
http://www.journalism.co.uk/2/articles/5493.php
"Consumer news is a hard sell in a lot of newsrooms because it's not going to win a Pulitzer, but people really want objective information about what they are buying or have bought." -Hal Straus, database editor and manager for Washington Post:
"Journalists will do less 'been-there, done-that' reporting as readers demand more continuous coverage of issues“
Why we need data-driven journalism...
„....we will have to increasingly rely on "data" to feed our stories, to the point that "data-driven reporting" becomes second nature to journalists.“
Zach Beauvais, Journalism Needs Data in the 21st Century, ReadWriteWeb, August 5, 2009
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/journalism_needs_data_in_21st_century.php
Does media understand the inherent structure of its own information?
Adrian Holovaty: A fundamental way newspaper sites need to, 2006http://www.holovaty.com/writing/fundamental-change/
This article is a must-read in order to understand how thinking in newsrooms should change.
WE NEED BETTER FILTERS...
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
...TO UNDERSTAND
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
TRACK DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME
New York Times Rent or buy calculator
How can data-driven journalism
create value?
Creating value with data-driven journalism
- Help making the really important descisions
- Business - Markets, Finance, Training, Innovation
- Politics - Budgets, Programms, Initiatives
- Consumers - Buying a house/car/insurance, Orientation, Future
- More specific
- Total cost calculations with no selling interest behind
- Reducing time to find the answer
- Radically reformatting information to make it easier to use
- Unearthing the truth in past or even future events
Example: Guardian doing crowd-sourcing in expense scandal
http://blog.ouseful.info/
Toni Hirst
Not as new as it sounds: Big and small examples
- Thomson Reuters (Thomson moving from news to data)
- Economy.com (Moody‘s)
- Economist Intelligence Unit
- GapMinder, Karolinska Institute/Google
- Big Fat Story, Daily Beast
- Information is beautiful
- Flowing Data
- Statista
- EveryBlock (acquired by MSNBC)
What is there to learn?
Data-driven journalism: An evolving workflow model
MainActivity
Digg Transform Visualize Present Storytelling Distribute
Specific Tasks
Tracking data sources
Open DataData setsYour own dataPredictions
ScrapingCleaningStructuring
ChartsCalculators
Multimedia specials as a key format
Making it memorable
Transform information into usable formats/cheat sheets
Examples data.govdatagov.co.ukWorldbank API
Eurostat (?)
Open DataData sets
e.g. Guardian Data-Blog
Toni Hirsthttp://blog.ouseful.info/
Information is beautiful
Flowing Data
Elastic Lists
TableauManyEyes
plus manyothers....
New York Times
Innovative Interactivity
Good Magazine
Mediastorm
Duck Rabbit
Bombay Flying Club
Adam Westbrook
eMarketer
Statista
Thomson
We need to look at the whole chain to create value
Deutsche Welle and „data-driven journalism“
Practice what you preach...
TSDTraining- and Service Center Data-driven journalism
(Germany)
Main idea: Connecting media companies with data-specialistsGroup: Data-Specialists, Publisher, international media/trainingGoal: To achieve a much higher level of data-integration through specialistsDemonstrate what data-driven journalism can be, train journalists
Developing and building examples of data-driven journalismMaking sure that complexities of data integration are no barrier
Adding a European perspective:Articles on data-driven journalismProfiles of data-driven journalistsEvents & TrainingCurriculum for data-driven journalism
http://futureofjournalism.net/
http://www.ejc.net/
Data-driven journalism: Short list of links, sites and books - Adrian Holovaty: A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change (2006)
http://www.holovaty.com/writing/fundamental-change/
- Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers, McKinsey Quarterly, 2009http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Hal_Varian_on_how_the_Web_challenges_managers_2286
- Zach Beauvais, Journalism Needs Data in 21st Century, ReadWriteWeb, 2009http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/journalism_needs_data_in_21st_century.php
- Stijn Debrouwere, We’re in the information business (April 2010)http://stdout.be/2010/we-are-in-the-information-business/
- David McCandless: Information is Beautiful (Blog)http://www.holovaty.com/writing/fundamental-change/
- Nathan Yau: Flowing Data (Blog)http://flowingdata.com/
- Ian Ayres: Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way To Be Smart, 2007
- Data.gov (US)http://www.data.gov
- Worldbankhttp://data.worldbank.org/
Question to the audience
What is the one reason keeping you from exploring data?
?
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Thank You! Merci! Danke!
Contact:
Mirko [email protected]