Data visualization is a tool that is applicable in many industries. Some visualizations are made to help business owners make decisions, some to help reporters perform analysis to make discoveries. But what takes a visualization, or interactive piece, from something that helps a news producer, to something that helps a news consumer, requires someone who understands what a user is looking for Read More...
Journalism in the modern era. What is it? I've got some ideas, and a lot of questions, but I certainly don't know the answer. It necessitates more than a story, more than an article, more than a photo, more than a Web page. I'm pretty certain of one thing, though: It's got to do with data, and probably to do with data-driven applications Read More...
Information is fascinating at many different levels. Show me a simple graph of the components that make up a whole, that tells me something. I've found almost anything is more interesting when looked at across time, since it adds another dimension. This also helps with analysis, because outliers or rapid changes are often related to historical events Read More...
When we think of computer-assisted reporting, large-scale investigative projects are often what first come to mind. There's no question of the value and impact such endeavors can have on society. But CAR has many other purposes, too. One is bringing evidence to and localizing breaking news, and helping people find out more about their communities Read More...
My eyes have been opened by the readings I've been doing from Tufte. While I only assigned myself "Visual Explanations," I'm beginning to feel as if I want to soak up as much of his work as possible. So, I went to my advisor's office (Rich Gordon), where the walls are lined with what feels like an infinite number of CAR/data/viz/new media books, and procured Tufte's other three works Read More...
I've been working with Processing for a few weeks now. Some people have asked me when I'm going to start delving into the data set for my final project. Good question. The answer is that I'm still trying to get some of these theory and technical tools down. I've been having a lot of fun exploring the Processing language, and comparing it to my experience with Actionscript/Flash Read More...
I'm not anything resembling a visual genius, but I like to believe I have enough of an eye that I can tell what works and what doesn't. The reason Tufte's books are so helpful is that they tell me why something works, and give me rules so I know what I can and can't do. That's why I have great appreciation for the Tufte chapter of the week: "The Smallest Effective Difference" in my ongoing exploration of "Visual Explanations Read More...
Random time-saving Excel tip. Want to condense a long column to only display unique entries? Go to the Data menu, select Filter and Advanced Filter. Voila, a check box labeled "Unique records only". Don't know why I never noticed this before. Or, you know, you could use Group By in SQL. But no need to import databases just for filtering.
At Medill, there's a wonderful tradition called the "Medill F." Make a factual error of any sort, and you fail the assignment. The sadistic part of me likes it -- a journalist's job is to tell the truth. If you miss the mark, you've failed the public, and failed at your job for the day. Harsh but true Read More...
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