Getting Started with Data Journalism

Chris Knox

chris.knox@nzme.co.nz

29 February, 2024

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Outline

  • What is data journalism?
  • Using data in stories
  • How do we find data in New Zealand?
  • What are charts?
  • How to use Datawrapper
    • Locator maps
    • Graphs
    • Tables
  • How to use Flourish
  • A few guidelines
  • Where to go from here

What is data journalism?

Paul Bradshaw from Birmingham City University says:

Data can be the source of data journalism, or it can be the tool with which the story is told — or it can be both.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism says:

Data journalism is simply journalism.

The former is a new and trendy term but ultimately, it is just a way of describing journalism in the modern world.

A few examples of data journalism

Why did I decide to move from data science/visualisation to journalism?

Marino Rivera’s Cutter

I went to a talk by Amanda Cox, from the New York Times and one of the stories she showed was this look at Mariano Rivera’s Cutter

What roles does data have in journalism?

How about something more attainable?

A selection of recent Herald stories that use data:

Data journalism doesn’t need to be big and fancy

I think there are three distinct classes of data journalism:

  • Data
    collection
  • Data
    analysis
  • Data
    presentation/story-telling

Most stories involve all three, but if you are getting started focus on just one.

Where do we find data in New Zealand?

What is a chart?

  • Or what makes something a
    visualisation
    as opposed to a
    graphic
    ?

A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which “the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart”.

Why use charts?

  • Context
  • Clarity
  • Correctness - reveal thing’s that are hidden by summary statistics

Exercise

  • Company A has 10 employees. Each employee earns $100,000 per year. What is the average salary?

  • Company B has 10 employees. 9 employees earn $10,000 per year. 1 employee earns $910,000 per year. What is the average salary?

  • Company A has a good year and applies an average salary increase of 10% - everyone now earns $110,000.

  • Company B has a good year and applies an average salary increase of 10% - 9 people still earn $10,000 and 1 person earns $1,010,000.

Digressions — Why?

All summary statistics hide things

The mean and standard deviation are the same for each of these graphs

Datawrapper

Datawrapper is

widely used by journalists
, and was created by journalists, to

Enrich your stories with charts, maps, and tables.

  • It’s
    free
    (there is a paid plan but it targets larger organisations)
  • It provides well
    designed and sensible
    defaults making it easy to create a good-looking chart
  • Charts will
    continue online
    if you close your account
  • Fantastic blog
    - well worth reading to get you started thinking about what makes a good chart

Datawrapper has been seen in the wild in the

So it’s a useful skill to have in the New Zealand market.

(Yes I know these examples are slightly misleading - exactly why is left as an exercise for the reader)

Flourish

Many New Zealand news organisation use Datawrapper. But

is also popular. e.g

Flourish and Datawrapper are very similar tools. Datawrapper is focused on static charts, Flourish provides more interactive options.

Where to use datawrapper and flourish

Practical examples

Tools needed

Examples

  • A datawrapper locator map: An earthquake somewhere in New Zealand
  • A simple line chart: Burglaries in Christchurch
  • A simple bar chart: GDP by industry
  • A simple column chart: Private vehicles per household
  • Multiple lines: Volume of alcohol available for consumption
  • A table: Volume of alcohol available for consumption

Chart choice

  • Different charts will highlight different aspects of your data more effectively.
  • Choose the chart that shows the aspect of the data that you are interested in
  • Line and Bar charts are often a safe choice
  • Take care with maps and pie charts

FT Visual Vocabulary

Bad or deceiving charts

  • Charts and graphs can be used to deceive
    • Don’t do this.

The best way to get a sense for bad charts is to peruse vis.wtf or /r/dataisugly. There is also a good writeup here

The most common bad things are:

  • Incorrect, missing, or misleading labels
  • Inconsistenct scales
  • Truncating scales
  • Comparing things that shouldn’t be
  • Too many things

A few rules

  • Barcharts always start at 0

  • Line charts don’t need to start at 0, but always ask yourself if the range you select is going to make an insignificant change look important

  • Example: Drinks per person

  • Only use pie charts for

    parts of a whole
    and only when there are less than 5 categories

  • Avoid maps for showing quantities

  • LABELS
    - you are a journalist!!!

Going further

The next most useful skill is to learn how to use a simple pivot table.

Get data in the right format

Inspiration