I placed this comment in response to Robert Hernandez’s post on OJR re: whether journalists should be delving into databases and programming. I hope to write more on this later, but my greater issue is at the separation of coding and storytelling. OJR’s posting policy means my comment is pending approval, so I’m posting here for now, and hope to expand on this later. (more…)
When I last spoke about my new shiny data journo job in the outskirts of DC known as Arlington, I said it was a dream come true. A month later, I stand by that statement, and say I couldn't have imagined just how great it would be. I now even have teammates, and we have a name: NewsNavigator. Being around DC is fantastic, too Read More...
The database is a key part of data journalism. We spend a good amount of time making structured of the unstructured, and then we need to shove it somewhere so a web app can serve up relevant pieces, perform calculations to help us understand nuance. Straight text files just have their limits. But does that mean you can't build a data app that dynamically updates if you don't know the difference between MySQL and PostgreSQL and the newest Harry Potter movie? -- Oh wait, that last one's a sequel, not SQL! *Wow, that was a bad pun Read More...
NOTE: This entry was modified on the evening of 11/9/10 to deal with typos and missing words, resulting from posting this too late the previous night. Sleep deprivation isn't always a good thing -- although it allows one to do things more fun than sleep. Like play with data. Note to self: Be more careful in the future Read More...
Building data-driven websites has many different applications, and to say that I'm close to mastering all the needed techniques would be a lie. But if there's one thing I learned from my "summer" internship at the LA Times, it's that with some persistence, curiosity and masterful Googling, you can find what you need to know Read More...
Warning: This will be long, and sappy, and sentimental, and all things cliche. But, hopefully, it's still uplifting and interesting. My "summer" internship at the LA Times is almost over. It's lasted from April until now, and I could stay longer. I swore you'd have to drag me out of "dream internship" kicking and screaming, as I clung to the massive walls of the still-impressive building Read More...
Story of my life: This is a few weeks overdue. Launched a new app at the beginning of this month, tracking Prop 19 campaign contributions, which you can see at http://projects.latimes.com/prop19 (more...)
Despite being months out of school, I'm still relatively obsessed with teaching and learning. That's part of what makes journalism these days fun -- we learn about our subject matters, and we learn new tools for information display. But the training of new journos has a special place in my heart. Every day, I benefit from the teachers in my life at the LAT, and elsewhere in the community Read More...
UPDATE: More later, but if you missed the geekery and fantastic exchange of knowledge that you get with a phenomenally sharp, inquisitive and dedicated group like the #wjchatters, you can find the transcript here. Tomorrow, Wed. Sept. 8, we'll be discussing "Finding the story in the data" at #wjchat, and I have been tapped to host Read More...
My days continue to putter along at the delightful dream job that is working at the LAT Data Desk. Some work is public-facing, a lot is internal to the LAT, but it's always a learning experience. Recently, I had the opportunity (okay, was tasked with) getting some information out of our archives into a database structure Read More...
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