People say the best way to learn new skills is to just start doing them, but just starting to do it on minkoffcodingadventures.com isn’t quite enough for you. You want to get out there, but you want help. I have good news for you, there’s a place where you will build these projects, take ownership for them, but benefit from the support of a range of good folks. I’m sure there are others, too, but one of these places is in a building on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles — they call it the LA Times. I call it my first paid journalistic home.

The description for the application doesn’t come up if you type in “data journalism internship” on Google. But look here and you’ll see a position for a data application producer intern. (Say that ten times fast. When I was there they called it “Data/Web/Programming intern”. This is better.)

Ideally, you’ve soaked up all you can when it comes to HTML, CSS and Javascript as well. You’ve dabbled in frameworks, or used them extensively. You want to code for journalism. You want to make the most of data. You want to work with people who share those goals. You won’t get 40 daily story clips at the end of the summer, you’ll get a few clips. But those clips — which is an archaic word — will be carefully-constructed data-driven apps.

This is where I spent March to October of 2010. I created campaign contribution applications, a sidecar to an investigative project on redevelopment, and relaunched the website’s bestsellers presence. Plus, I got to pitch in on some smaller projects, and assist with the big guns of the LAT’s news apps awesomeness — projects like Crime L.A., a mapping application that automatically takes in crime feeds, presents the data and analyzes where the largest spikes are. Projects like the Homicide Report, that track the, well, homicides in the region.

There’s not really a typical schedule to the day. Occasional meetings, but primarily, you sit at your desk and do good work. It can, and should, take months to do an application right. Friday afternoon data meetings typically involve wine –very California.

If you want to go to the LA Times because it’s a big name, good for you. If you want to go for the city of Los Angeles, and California life, that’s another good reason. But if that’s all you care about, you’re missing the best part. That would be the team known as the Data Desk, that you get to collaborate with.

Want to learn about the intricacies of data analysis? Talk to the analysts. Want to get to know the reporters who file the entries that fill the Homicide Report blog with stories, and hear about what happened at the coroner’s office? They’re there. But your closest contacts will be Ben Welsh and Ken Schwencke (who I interviewed here before I even applied for the internship).

They’re Web developers, and journalists. Wait, do they do the backend work of structuring data in Django models, or the front-end work of creating robust templates to present that data? Both. You will, too, if you join them. They’re eager to help, take their work very seriously, and are always looking for ways to improve the projects of the Data Desk. They help you improve, answer your questions, rejoice in your successes, support you when you could have done better.

The data culture is already instilled at the LA Times. Management, reporters, analysts, developers, they all know what you can do, even when you don’t know what you can do. It’s just that there’s so much, more people are needed. You won’t be bored, you will be valued. And you won’t have to explain why this type of journalism is important, becuase for the most part, it’s just accepted. You can’t find that everywhere, which is why it’s worth treasuring when you can get it.

When I was looking into this internship, I was googling around to find a post like this, hear a bit about someone’s experience. Didn’t exist then, which is why I’m writing this. Now it exists. It’s hard to find because the Data Desk is only a few years old, and its other intern is Ken Schwencke, who works there permanently now. I went from the LA Times to PBS. The LAT can’t make your career, but gives you resources you can take advantage of. Approach it the right way, and you have a stronger possibility of achieving your dream. Only you know what that means.

So, after your time there, you’ll be as prepared as you can be to walk into another newsroom somewhere in the country, and bring the data and programming. It’ll help you bridge the gap between wishing you could do it, and just getting it done.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely, without a doubt.

If you’re interested, you should apply via this link, and reach out to Ben and Ken with questions (find them on Twitter at @palewire and @schwanksta.) And if you have questions about my experience there, I’d love to chat about it.

Explore other posts:

• October 30, 2011 -- Answering some FAQs about Fusion Tables
• January 29, 2010 -- Data Delver: Perry Swanson, The Gazette
• February 17, 2011 -- An inside look at life at PBS News
• March 8, 2010 -- Piece de resistance: Data viz wrapup
• February 28, 2010 -- Django app #2: Conquering forms and Google Maps API
• February 13, 2010 -- Data Delver: David Donald, Center for Public Integrity

That’s why I absolutely loved last week’s post by TBD’s Steve Buttry on this isssue. Read it, seriously. I was going to write up my comments, but I’ve got something better.

I started discussing this issue with my father Mike Minkoff, who happened to be in town last week. And he helped me realize the struggle our education finds itself in, well, it’s nothing new.

Mike is a computational scientist at Illinois’ Argonne National Laboratory, using his cs skills to enhance the work of his fellow scientists, and enables them to explore problems whose complexity or sheer magnitude is beyond the reach of mere humans. It’s applying tech skills to another field. And that’s a little bit like what we do as journo-programmers, bring the cs to the journalism.

But when he was going to school, computer science curricula weren’t all that certain. And we can learn from that transition. I’ll let him take it away.

I am a computational scientist with an interest in data in journalism. I find a number of exciting and interesting parallels between the current evolution of journalism as discussed in this post and the early history of the field of computer science when I went to grad school in the 1960s.

I studied computer science at the undergraduate level through Ph.D. between 1963 and 1973 at the University of Wisconsin and Princeton University. During that time, there were relatively few schools that had curricula in computer science (Cal Tech, MIT, the University of Wisconsin and a few others) and the programs were principally at the graduate level. In fact, schools didn’t always call it “Computer Science” — some of the courses were listed as “Programs in Numerical Analysis,” as at Wisconsin.

There are two points I’d like to comment on:

1. In the 1960s, as computer science programs developed there was a fundamental debate regarding what should be taught and where. On the one hand, grad students and faculty felt that learning a programming language was of utmost importance in order to get a job after graduation. On the other hand, others felt that theory is more important so the student can develop and move with the technology rather than become stagnant as technology advanced. Later on, the theory approach justified the placement of computer science in major universities rather than trade schools. There is a parallel here to the “basics” vs. “technology” issue in journalism.

   As this debate developed, the professional societies (notably the Association for Computing Machinery) established a committee to define a core curriculum of an B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. and allow for electives that could be locally defined by the institution. The courses in the core represented the key areas of computer science and are reflected in their decendents today in simulation and modeling, data analysis and operating systems theory:

   • numerical analysis and mathematical optimization
   • systems programming
   • artificial intelligence and automated reasoning

   Of course these are historical topics and just as the technology used in journalism will develop in new ways, so did these areas.

   As to the theory vs. language issue the obvious answer is both. In all fields, as the subject advances there are always new topics to integrate into a curriculum. I would expect that a journalist be as good a writer as in the past, but also he or she must know how to utilize the technology of today (and tomorrow). I would hope that in the rush to move with technology the programs and faculty of traditional journalism is not neglected. There is the danger of being so committed to technology that the core of basic journalism is lost.

2. One of the most exciting parallels to me has lasted my career. The pioneers of computer science were my teachers, mentors and lifelong friends and advisors just as the present digital journalism teachers and mentors are for their students. Graduate school is not just a spoon-fed set of courses, but a place where inquiry and learning can be nurtured. One of the commonalities of computer science of the 1960s and the technology journalism of today is that once in a generation a field provides the opportunity to meet and learn from the people who created the field. This gives the mentor and student to opportunity to rise to the challenge of working in a new and growing field. While students in both areas need to decide for themselves what they want to get out of a career, for me it is exciting to meet and learn from the people who created the field. As a student, I felt that the difference between studying math and computer science was that you could meet and talk with the developers and authors of the textbooks. Of course today it is the blog rather than the textbook, I guess!

I thought this was definitely something to ponder, and I hope that in a generation, I’ll be the one telling my children about the parallels between what we consider modern journalis, and some new transition their field is going through.

Has this gotten you thinking, too? That’s what the comments section is for!

Related posts you might enjoy:

• April 7, 2010 -- Columbia’s new joint MS: Good start, but no panacea
• January 31, 2010 -- Data Delver: Matt Waite, St. Petersburg Times
• November 24, 2009 -- A letter to journo-programmers: Teach me, inspire me

I didn’t retweet it for a few hours, because, for once, an opinion didn’t jump into my mind.  If you were in my classes at Medill, watching me wince in pain every time we stopped short of delving as deep as we needed to, complaining about the pervading fear of code in journalism, if you knew me, you’d think I would jump up and down, and say, “Now, why couldn’t I have that?  It would have been awesome!”  People are saying it helps people who aren’t coders become coders.  While some pointed out that Medill had this first, our program was for programmers to become journalists.  And how does that serve liberal arts majors who want to code for journalism?  Why isn’t it listed as a course option?  Wouldn’t this Columbia program make life so much easier?

Let’s put my biases out front: I’m a recent Medill grad.  I am a programmer-journalist.  I do not hold an interactive concentration from Medill.  I took no programming classes within Medill.  I did not participate in the programmer to journalist program. I didn’t get that tuition-free deal. Medill had this first, but didn’t have a curriculum for turning liberal arts majors into journo-coders.  And, you know what?  I don’t think they should.  You get something from pushing through it, pursuing your own interests, learning how to learn.

Sorry, I’m just not on board with a joint-degree program.  Take a few coding classes, but that can be done by cross-registering outside your department at many schools.  But understand that any coding you’re taught may be replaced by a new language years, weeks or days later.  We shouldn’t be taking too many classes in coding, but learning how to learn quickly from the Internet.  If, let’s say, you need a JQuery library to perform a certain task, know how to adapt tutorials, don’t think, “Now, this wasn’t in that degree I got, what do I do?”

As Poynter’s Dave Stanton pointed out, there’s a lack of statistics in this curriculum.  This is absolutely essential for people who will be concentrating in data mining, or data-driven app creation.  Perhaps this is easily remedied.  But it signals to me that there are probably similar holes elsewhere in the curriculum, holes I don’t understand as well.  Hopefully, these will be patched in future iterations.  I do have some concerns about the first class to go through this program, though.  But we must change curricula, or die.  And there will be some successes, and improvements to be made, with each new attempt.  Kudos to Columbia on taking a chance!

I also hope there’s a way to pick a specialization within the program.  This is a tall order to complete in a year, and you may excel at data analysis, or visualization, or automating news aggregation, or something else.  But they require a distinct set of skills.  I would approach this as I would a general journalism curriculum.  Get familiar with all the different options, figure out what you love, and get really good at it.

And perhaps the biggest problem of all is the misconception that by putting computer science and journalism classes next to each other, even with integration, we’ve created a recipe for programmer-journalists.  You don’t need to struggle to figure out what to learn, we can do it for you.  I can’t help but feel that this encourages complacency.  If I just listen to my advisor, and follow the steps laid out for me, I can do it.  But you must never stop learning.  What do you do when the syllabus runs out?  It’s essential to learn to learn what you need to know, and then do it.  If students don’t search beyond the curriculum, we may stop moving forward.  The world is moving too fast to create a finite cs roadmap at this point.

There’s something to sitting down and hacking something out.  Part of the beauty of coding is that anyone can do it, follow the steps, learn the language, and you WILL get it.  This program may give students a push, but it’s by no means essential.

So, sure, let’s encourage journos to take cs classes, talk to cs professors.  But gaining a masters in both fields, in little more than a year?  It’s a good option, but far from the only one.  It is only the beginning.  If you go to another school, you could make your own program, take classes in both departments.  This is formalizing what some of us are already doing.  If you enter this program, remember to push your faculty resources even further, and don’t believe it’s a panacea, cure-all, complete road map to what we need done.  This is the first rung up the ladder. There are other ways to climb, and even once you get to the first rung, in the end, it’s up to you to go ever higher.

Related posts you might enjoy:

• September 16, 2010 -- Journ curricula’s need for transition isn’t unique
• November 24, 2009 -- A letter to journo-programmers: Teach me, inspire me
• May 3, 2010 -- Note to self: Real world journo-coding lessons
• March 29, 2010 -- Using Javascript for interactive Google charts
• March 28, 2010 -- Data Delver: Mark Schaver, Louisville Courier
• March 25, 2010 -- Self-teaching data and programming skills

I’ve spent far too long just calling myself an online, or interactive, journalist — and not knowing enough to specify exactly where I fit.  Data and programming journalistic gurus, there are students and young professionals out there depending on you to share your knowledge.  I didn’t even know that’s what I needed until Derek came to Chicago to speak to our class at Medill. From the first second, I was hooked, and knew that the intersection of journalism and technology is what I was about. Knowing I would get a quarter of that was one of the top reasons I came to Washington.

I was planning to write on this experience after the quarter ended, but this afternoon I saw this tweet from St. Petersburg Times senior news technologist, and Politifact developer, Matt Waite:”If you could take a class from a journalist/programmer, what would you want out of it? Tell me here on Twitter or here: http://bit.ly/5HGa1O.”

So, here’s an open letter to Matt — and any other programmer-journalists out there — on my recommendations for a j-school course.  I’d love to see more such courses crop up, and I think it’s something every journalist should be exposed to. Computers and journalism are about SO much more than repurposing print or broadcast content on the Web — the possibilities are endless!

First of all, because programmer-journalists are still a relatively rare breed, please recognize that your role as a mentor and supporter is just as important as the techniques and philosophies you teach us.

1. Be open to our questions, whether about homework assignments, the best place to start learning Python, the best people to talk to and blogs to follow.  Extra credit if we can reach you through some sort of instant messaging system during normal work hours.
2. It’s much appreciated if you’re willing to listen to our rants about the clash between old and new media. Even better if you’re interested in entering into a discussion, and can introduce us to other like-minded people in the field.
3. I’d recommend starting a publicly available class site (Derek’s is here), where we can access resources related to class content, as well as extended material beyond the scope of the course. It’s better if others can access it, even those not in your class, hopefully that can foster even more conversation.  What that means is that even if you don’t cover Python in class, show me the best way to learn it if I’m so inclined.  And just having the link there may inspire someone.
4. Bring in other professionals who you already exchange knowledge with.  They can contribute to the class, and we get to meet cool people.  Win-win!  Bonus points if you can work out a mandatory candy-bringing arrangement for special guests like we have in our class.  That’s a delicious win-win!

Content-wise:

1. Show me where to access government data sets, and what kind of stories I can find from them. That includes ways data can supplement more traditional stories, as well as ways I can find data-driven stories by “interviewing the information.”  Tell me why I would do it, and show me how to do it.  Teach me SQL, not Access, so I have the flexibility to completely manipulate data, and so I can start getting comfortable with thinking like a programmer.  And never tell me coding is scary, or act as if it’s beyond my comprehension or my job, treat it as just another tool.
2. Teach me about the philosophy of openness — both in the sense of why it’s better to have data in a CSV format than PDF — and how we as journalists can make our reporting and presentation process transparent. Why should I even think about including a searchable database online with my story? And how do I get it up there?
3. Tell me from your experience: What draws an audience to a data-driven site? Why do you think Politifact was such a success? How much were you thinking about audience when creating it? How do you create for an diverse audience, those incredibly familiar with computers and the online world, and those just delving into it? How do you make the project something everyone can be comfortable accessing?
4. What kind of questions will programs allow me to ask in bulk that I couldn’t have asked before? What are the capabilities of different programming languages? Even if I can’t learn them all, show me what can be done so I can communicate effectively with those who do know those languages. Also, learning about the potential of different technologies will encourage me to learn them. I only started digging into Python after Derek mentioned doing things “programatically” a few bazillion times. Before that, I was content to know it existed, and pretty much leave it at that.
5. Teach me about the most efficient ways to visualize information. Should an interactive graphic include everything in my database, just because it can? In other words, help me understand how news judgment works when faced with the possibilities of programming. I think this differs from traditional news judgment, since there are more options available to us.
6. Show me the best way to present these ideas to traditional editors at news organizations. How do we convey that this isn’t just a flashy tool, not a distraction from journalism itself, but instead a way to extend our craft? Help us think outside the box, and help us to encourage others to do the same.We need many more programmer-journalists, and while I see academic programs that exist to help programmers gain journo skills (such as this one at my own Medill), I see so much less in the other direction. Please, expose us to the ideas and help us get started thinking about the possibilities. Help us acquire the skills that will help us better serve our communities. The ambition and drive is there, all we’re asking for is access to your brain that’s as open as we wish all data were.

Matt and other programmer-journalists: here’s the reverse question — What advice would you give to journalism students wanting to learn more about how we can best utilize programming?  What skills should we start with?  Who should we be paying close attention to?  I’ll be watching these classes from afar, thirsting for more.

Related posts you might enjoy:

• April 7, 2010 -- Columbia’s new joint MS: Good start, but no panacea
• January 11, 2010 -- Why technology matters: It’s about reporting
• November 22, 2009 -- Printies and webbies — we’re all journalists!
• September 16, 2010 -- Journ curricula’s need for transition isn’t unique
• May 3, 2010 -- Note to self: Real world journo-coding lessons
• March 29, 2010 -- Using Javascript for interactive Google charts