Category

data delvers

03.08.10

Data Delver: Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica CAR, data delvers | (0)
The nature of CAR is shifting each day, as data analyzers and Web developers alike prepare to converge on Phoenix later this week. But for those who've been in this for the long haul, the essence of the field remains what it always has been. That's the message ProPublica's Director of Computer-Assisted Reporting, Jennifer LaFleur, imparted to me during our interview. Continue Reading...
03.08.10

Data Delvers: Ben Welsh & Ken Schwencke, LA Times CAR, data delvers, data visualizations | (1)
Using data as part of a package that drives user interest needs a strong team, and cross-collaboration between reporters, editors and web developers. At the Los Angeles Times, two key people who work to bring it all together are Web dev duo Ben Welsh and Ken Schwencke. It's their job to enhance and enrich the various reporting and projects done by reporters and make sure it's interesting and accessible to you on the Web. That may mean creating an interface to display a video package, bringing you the faces behind the numbers of local homicides, allowing you to combine your ...
02.20.10

Data Delver: Chase Davis, California Watch CAR, data delvers | (1)
My next Data Delver: By day, he's an investigative reporter. By night, he's Superman! (Okay, he actually builds database applications with co-conspirator Matt Waite. But that's almost the same, right?) The CAR world, as I see it, has two different paths you can go down: continue to use data for reporting stories, or apply those skills to web development and presenting data. The latter splits into front-end and back-end work as well. If you're indecisive like me, the best case scenario is to be able to use CAR for both reporting and building data apps, or at least, exercise careful control ...
02.20.10

Data Delver: MaryJo Webster, Pioneer Press CAR, data delvers | (1)
One of the virtues of continuing to be a graduate student while pursuing my CAR journey has been the freedom to look at problems academically. One issue I've been wrestling with is where we need to use more data. I've come to the conclusion that it needs to be used more often in reporting. That can be simple additions of a sentence to some breaking news stories, or using at as the basis for a long-term investigation. But does it only belong to a subset of beats? (I argue yes.) Should it be used in every story? (I argue no.) ...
02.15.10

Data Delver: Lisa Pickoff-White, California Watch class, data delvers, data visualizations | (0)
While talking to data reporters from around the country, it’s become apparent to me that the best work is done when the staff is supportive. Some newspapers are doing great work, and some are struggling. Which led me to wonder how the investigative organizations are doing, new and encouraging experimentation to draw eyes and inform readers. I’ve been impressed with the rapid emergence of California Watch on to the field and find it almost difficult to believe how much they’ve accomplished in the month or so they’ve been live. Recently, California Watch ran a package on the profitability of DUI checkpoints ...
02.13.10

Data Delver: Mo Tamman, Wall Street Journal CAR, data delvers | (2)
I think in the modern era, CAR merits consideration across all beats. Perhaps that's part of why I didn't discover it for so long, it never occurred to me to search for a specialty that looked at data, because I just assumed that was the way to do journalism. But if I were pressed to think of beats that are most naturally paired with CAR, I'd name politics first, and business second. And if you say business news, I say Wall Street Journal. Does their process differ from that of other newsrooms? And how do ...
02.13.10

Data Delver: David Donald, Center for Public Integrity CAR, data delvers | (0)
What is it we love about computer-assisted reporting? Why is the NICAR-L list full of people eager and willing to diagnose problem queries and discuss the merits of mapping software? What draws people to it? The first time I saw a Python script perform batch geocoding, as numbers spun out of a Terminal console quicker than I could read them, my eyes glazed over with wonder, and I think my mouth dropped open a little. But that process isn't journalism -- that's computer science. It's what you do with the information that matters. It's the computer's ability to parse, analyze and ...