using data for science journalism
TRANSCRIPT
Using Data for Science Journalism
10 May 2015, International School of Science Journalism, Erice, Italy Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana!
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg
1. A Brief Introduction to Data Journalism!2. Using Data to Tell Stories in Science and
Technology Studies (STS)!3. Networks in Journalism
Predecessors to data journalism - from social survey movement in 1900s
to “precision journalism” in 1960s.
For example
Governments (portals, FOI, leaks) Scientific research (open access, open data)
Civil society organisations and companies User generated/citizen data
Data extracted from digital media
Panton Principles for Open Data in Science http://pantonprinciples.org/
Government data about…!!• Public finance • Contracts • Campaign finance • Elections • Companies • Lobbying • Pollution • Environment • Events and crises
CCTV Camera Locations - Runnymede Borough Council!http://data.gov.uk/dataset/cctv-camera-locations
CO2 emissions by different sub-groups in manufacturing sector, 2000 to 2008!http://data.gov.uk/dataset/co2-emissions-by-different-sub-groups-in-manufacturing-sector-2000-to-2008/
Luxembourg: http://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks
The Migrants Files: https://www.detective.io/detective/the-migrants-files/
http://digitalmethods.net
http://www.medialab.sciences-po.fr/
http://www.densitydesign.org/
–Tommaso Venturini, Controversy Mapping, climaps.org
“Controversy mapping was introduced by Bruno Latour as a teaching method to train students and future citizens to
navigate socio-technical debates through the creative use of digital media.”
!“The political aim of controversy mapping is to provide innovative methods for approaching scientific and
technical disputes. ”
– Richard Rogers, “Political Research in the Digital Age”, International Public Policy Review, 2014
“[Digital methods] refers to repurposing online devices and platforms (such as Google searches, Facebook and
Wikipedia) for social and political research that would often have been otherwise improbable.”
– Bruno Latour & Tommaso Venturini, “The Social Fabric: Digital Traces and Quali-quantitative Methods”, Proceedings of Future En Seine, 2009
“The interest of electronic media lies in the fact that every interaction that passes through them leaves traces…”
- Duncan J. Watts, “A twenty-first century science,” Nature, 2007
“Data about Internet-based communication and interactivity could revolutionise our understanding of collective human
behaviour.” !
– David Lazer et al., “Computational Social Science”, Science, 2009
“…[T]racing the spread of arguments, rumours, or positions about political and other issues in the blogosphere, as well as the behaviour of individuals ‘surfing’ the Internet, where
the concerns of an electorate become visible in the searches they conduct.”
–Noortje Marres & Carolin Gerlitz, “Interface methods”, The Sociological Review, forthcoming
!“Social media data tend to be organised in ways that favour highly particular modes of analysis, such as the investigation of people’s ‘networks’, the ‘influence’ of actors, the ‘reach’ of content or the ‘currency’ of certain words at certain moments
in time.”
“… A holistic understanding of digital social research, which recognises that its analytic capacities derive from the
assembly of methods, data, tools, user practices, context of application and so on.”
–Noortje Marres & Carolin Gerlitz, “Interface methods”, The Sociological Review, forthcoming
New York Times (2014) “The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State”
New York Times (2014) “The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State”
Findings!
Both adaptation and mitigation are highly visible in negotiations.
Mitigation has been a top priority from the beginning.
Adaptation received less attention in the beginning with the exception of adaptation financing
Adaptation becomes more important in the second phase of the negotiations.
Notable stability in presence and intervention of countries.
Most active are China (representing G77), United States and Europe.
Notable exceptions include Bolivia and Philippines who are becoming more
prominent in recent negotiations.
Countries tend to be more active when they host the negotiations.
“…the negotiations on climate change have moved from mitigation to also include adaptation, an issue which could in principle be seen as a national responsibility.
Here it becomes particularly acute to justify which countries should receive aid and why. A much
debated method for doing so is the assessment of vulnerability to climate change.”
!- climaps.org
DARA Climate Vulnerability Model.!Available at: http://download.daraint.org/CVM2-Low.pdf
Who is vulnerable according to whom?
Climaps (2014). Available at: http://climaps.org
Findings
• Vulnerability indices tend to disagree in their assessment of different countries.
• Very few countries (7) are among the most vulnerable according to all three indices.
• Quite a few countries (25) are simultaneously assessed to be most vulnerable and least vulnerable according to different indices.
• The assessment of climate change vulnerability by means of indicators continues to be a contentious issue divide in both policy and academic communities.
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
BBC News (2007) “BBC switches off climate special”. Available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6979596.stm
– Richard Rogers, Digital Methods, MIT Press, 2013
“The skeptics were increasingly at the top of the news. […] Are the skeptics at the top of the
web too?”
Climate Sceptics!!
S. Fred Singer Robert Balling Sallie Baliunas
Patrick Michaels Richard Lindzen
Steven Milloy Timothy Ball
Paul Driessen Willie Soon
Sherwood B. Idso Frederick Seitz
Climate Sceptic Organisations!!
American Enterprise Institute American Legislative Exchange Council
Center for Science and Public Policy Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Competitive Enterprise Institute Frontiers of Freedom
Marshall Institute Heartland Institute
Tech Central Station
Digital Methods Initiative (2007) “Climate Change Sceptics”.Available at: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ClimateChangeSkeptics
Climate change sceptics appeared to have disproportionate influence in the media relative to their influence with other prominent climate
science organisations on the web.
TerraEco (2010) Kit de Survie pour un Diner avec des Climatosceptiques
Are climate skeptics mainstream or fringe in climate science?
Do the skeptics and their co-authors publish articles in the same disciplines and journals as other climate scientists?
Sabine Niederer, “‘Global warming is not a crisis!’: Studying climate change skepticism on the Web”, Necsus, 2013
Findings
• Sceptics are part of the mainstream of climate change science research.
• Skeptical climate science is not positioned outside the field but is part of climate science (ecology, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, plant sciences, agronomy, etc.)
• The skeptics publish in the top climate journals including Nature and Science.
The Guardian (2013) “The rise of far right parties across Europe is a chilling echo of the 1930s”.Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration
Huffington Post (2014) “Sudden Rise of Far Right Groups in EU Parliament Rings Alarm Bells Across Europe”. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elinadav-heymann/sudden-rise-of-far-right-
_b_5512961.html
New York Times (2014) “Populist Party Gaining Muscle to Push Britain to the Right”.Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/populist-party-gaining-muscle-to-push-
britain-to-the-right.html
Findings
New issues (e.g. environment, anti-globalisation and rights), principles and
recruitment techniques.
Counter-measures are outdated. !
Islamophobia is located primarily in the North.
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
The Guardian (2012) “Far-right anti-Muslim network on rise globally as Breivik trial opens”. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/14/breivik-trial-norway-mass-murderer
Hope Not Hate (2012) “Counter-Jihad Report”.Available at: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/counter-jihad/
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Findings
Facebook is an important medium for extremist groups.
!Three main clusters based on geographical
proximity. !
European Counter-Jihadist groups are networked and transnational.
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Findings!!
Offline leaders are active on Facebook. !
There are also new emerging online leaders. !
New technique for identifying online leaders.
JoongAng Ilbo, “Park Young-joon at the Center of!President Lee Myung-bak’s Human Resources Network” (2002)
New York Times, “Among the Oscar Contenders, a Host of Connections” (2013)
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère politique" (2012)
Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère
politique" (2012)
Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)
Functions of network analysis in the newsroom!!• Presentational or storytelling device • Story discovery • Exploratory analysis of complex networks
and big databases • Newsroom knowledge management • Internal reference resource
Opportunities !• New insights into large and complex
systems • More network analysis, rather than just
network mapping • New data and methods for tracing networks
using social media and hyperlink analysis • Identifying new sources for interviews • Researchers and journalists collaborating to
tell stories about complex topics
Challenges !• Lack of awareness • Lack of flagship projects • Time, resource and budget constraints • Lack of technical capacity and tooling • Speed of tools and methods • Lack vocabulary for talking about network
analysis
Thank You!Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg