Data Journalism: An Explication

Data Journalism:
An Explication
Cindy Royal, Associate Professor - @cindyroyal
Dale Blasingame, Lecturer - @daleblasingame
Texas State University

Data Journalism: An Explication
What is Data Journalism?
 Process or Product?
 Roles or Skills?
 Who does it affect?
 Is it really anything new at all?
 All of the above

Method
 Concept explication with grounded theory
 Identification of sources
 Identification of assertions
 Word frequency analysis
 Coding of dimensions
 Development of conceptual definition

Video Interviews

Process
 [Data journalism is] “a reporting process that uses
spreadsheet programs to generate statistics from public
records and data sets" (Hackett, 2013)
 [Data journalism is] “the aggregating, filtering, and
visualizing of large sets of data, based on statistical
methods of data analysis” (Dreyfus, S., Lederman, R., &
Bosua, R., 2011).
 "I would say data journalism is such a wide range now of
styles - from visualisation to long form articles. The key
thing they have in common is that they're based on
numbers and statistics - and that they should aim to get a
'story' from that data. The ultimate display of that story, be
it words or graphics, is irrelevant, I think - it's more about
the process" (Rogers, 2012).

Product
 “Data journalism can help a journalist tell a
complex story through engaging infographics”
(Gray, J., Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).
 “Data journalism — interactives, infographics,
charts and tables — were tapped to convey
factual aspects like historical timelines and status
of gun control policy” (Xie, 2013).
 “Some stories are just better told as databases
and interactive web apps” (Betancourt, 2009).

Convergence of Fields
 “Data journalism is ‘incomprehensibly enormous,’ in part
because it represents the convergence of several fields —
programming, design, statistics and investigative
research, to name a few” (Bradshaw, 2010).
 “In the hands of the most advanced practitioners, data
journalism is a powerful tool that integrates computer
science, statistics, and decades of learning from the
social sciences in making sense of huge databases”
(Howard, Art and Sciences, 2014).
 “Data journalism is currently an emerging form of
storytelling, where traditional journalistic working methods
are mixed with data analysis, programming and
visualization techniques” (Appelgren & Nygren, 2014).

Traditional
 “Data journalism and its practice are not new, along with
existing critiques of its practices or of programming in
journalism generally “(Howard, Debugging the Backlash,
2014).
 “One of the editors points out that analyzing data is not in
itself something new for journalists, however, the new tools
that are currently available speed up the process of
working with large data sets” (Appelgren, E., & Nygren,
G., 2014)
 "What makes data journalism different to the rest of
journalism? Perhaps it is the new possibilities that open up
when you combine the traditional ‘nose for news’ and
ability to tell a compelling story, with the sheer scale and
range of digital information now available” (Gray, J.,
Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).

Outside Influence
 “It can help explain how a story relates to an individual”
 "Data-driven journalism” improves the way journalism can
contribute to democracy – especially at a time when a
growing number of data sets are released by
governments" (Parasie & Dagiral, 2013).
 “After all, programming and data are journalism. And it
can be practiced in such a way that it can create
interaction, user engagement, and more information in
terms of seeking the truth. Especially when you talk about
Freedom of Information access to government data — if
the public can have access to that in a way that makes
sense to them, or in a way that’s easy for them to use,
then that’s just really powerful” (Royal in Garber, 2010).

Skills
 “I think schools are making a better effort to train young
journalists in many of the skills that fall under the umbrella
of data journalism: data wrangling, analysis, visualization;
statistics; digital literacy (how does the Web work?); Web
development” (Howard, Profile of the Data Journalist,
2014).
 Data journalism is a new set of skills for searching,
understanding and visualizing digital sources in a time that
basic skills from traditional journalism just aren’t enough
 "Emergence of a new generation of web-based
technologies that have made the presentation and
visualization of data-driven stories easy even for those with
no database or web development experience"
(Vallance-Jones, F., 2013).

Hybrid
 “Data journalism is bridging the gap between stat
technicians and wordsmiths, locating outliers and
identifying trends that are not just statistically
significant, but relevant to de-compiling the
inherently complex world of today.” (Gray, J.,
Bounegru, L., & Chambers, L., 2012).
 “Sourcing, reporting and presenting stories
through data-driven journalism, and visualising
and presenting data (including databases,
mapping and other interactive graphics)" (Arthur,
2010).

Comprehensive Definition
Data journalism is a process by which analysis and presentation of
data are employed to better inform and engage the public. Its
roots are in the fields of computer-assisted and investigative
reporting, but data journalism products may add engagement
through customization and user contribution made possible by
Web development and programming techniques.

Data Journalism: An Explication

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to Data Journalism: An Explication (20)

More from Cindy Royal (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Data Journalism: An Explication

Editor's Notes