Nigel Chiwaya, Graphics Reporter for the Wall Street Journal
347-901-9095
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02/14/2017: Overview
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What is data journalism?
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Where can you find data?
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How can you identify patterns in it?
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04/12/2017: Tools of the trade: using several free websites and services to take data and turn it into something that readers can understand.
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04/27/2017: Final project pitch week
It's a different way of telling the news, one that relies less on anecdotes and more on measurable facts and statistics.
When done well, data stories can very effectively answer the following questions:
- What's happening right now?
- What has happened in the past?
- What's changed or different?
- How widespread, common, or rare is something?
But remember, data journalism isn't a replacement for the good traditional reporting that you're all familiar with. You don't want to use data instead of sources and expert, you want to use data with, to amplify or challenge what's being told to you.
- Where the Green Cabs are
- Changing New York
- Where can the average New Yorker find a studio apartment?
- City Council Raises
- Sheldon Silver's Secret Money Trail
Data's the paper trail. It's the forms that people fill out when to register their new dog with the city. It's the Birth certificate information
Your first stop for data is traditionally the government. They're usually mandated by law to keep track of various statistics and often they'll have it published on their website. So think about the type of data you want to find, and then think about the government agency that would have it.
- Schools: NYC Department of Education
- Crime: NYPD
- Demographics: US Census Bureau, NYC Department of City Planning
- Traffic: NYC Department of Transportation
- Subways, buses: MTA
New York City actually has a wealth of data uploaded to a website called NYC Open Data. At Open Data you can find:
- Taxi Pickups
- Car Crashes
- 311 Complaints
- Restaurant Inspections
- And much, much more.
Other data sources include:
- Colleges and universities (they're always doing studies and reports)
- Non-profit groups
- For-profit companies, especially if they exist mainly on the web. For example StreetEasy, a site where you can list apartment rentals and sales, has tons of data on apartment prices
- Always check your data. Make sure it's correct. Talk to experts in the subject, ask them if what you're seeing makese sense.
- You're still a reporter. Data is just another source.