SPECIAL THANKS TO:

The following individuals, for sharing their considerable knowledge, time and resources for this presentation.

Jim Rankin

Reporter/Photographer, The Toronto Star

Fred Vallance-Jones

Assistant Professor, Journalism, University of King’s College

M. Tyler Dukes

Managing Editor, Reporters’ Lab

ABOUT ME

I’m a graduate of Carleton University’s School of Journalism

I’ve worked as a freelance journalist, copywriter and community manager over the past four years

I’m a member of:

Concatenate() is my favourite Excel function

ABOUT ME

I recently: Completed the Data Journalism Summer School Boot camp at the University of

King’s College in Halifax, NS

Spent a month writing about Big Macs as part of Tribal DDB’s successful “Our Food.

Your Questions” campaign for McDonald’s Canada

ABOUT ME

I have freelanced for:

ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION

Two very important points before we continue:

1. I am not a data journalism expert. 2. Canadian journalists currently do amazing data journalism work. We’re ‘far

behind’ in terms of the institutionalism of data journalism in our newsrooms.

WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

Also known as Computer-Assisted Reporting, Computational Journalism, Data-driven journalism, etc.

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WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

“Data journalism is obtaining, reporting on, curating and publishing data in the public interest.” Jonathan Stray, professional journalist and a computer scientist

“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.

Paul Bradshaw, Birmingham City University

WHAT IS DATA JOURNALISM?

Let’s mash the two together: Data journalism is “Journalism in which data leads to and/or is instrumental in

presenting a story in the public interest” “In the public interest” – important to distinguish that simply obtaining interesting

data does not equal ‘data journalism’ – example of story that has huge database of raw data/then presented in context – case in point: Wikileaks

WHAT IS ‘DATA?’

Anything quantifiable and in the public interest!

For example:

• Government Databases

• Budget Records

• Short-form Census

• The number of streetlamps in Toronto

SO WHAT’S A DATA JOURNALIST?

Think of a data journalist as a foreign correspondent that spends time opening spreadsheets rather than overseas

Just as there’s no such thing as speaking ‘Chinese’ or ‘First Nations’, data journalism is made up of many different languages and dialects.

Data Management

Data Collection

Scraping/Crawling

Data Visualization

Geocoding

Components of a Data Journalism Story

SCRAPING/CRAWLING

Parsing large volumes of data and extracting relevant information

Languages: Python, Ruby on Rails, Regular Expressions

Ex. 1: Inside the Federal Budget Stuart Thompson, Mike Sukmanowsky, David Weisz (Ad Hoc Data)

DATA COLLECTION/CLEANUP

Obtaining records from municipal, provincial and federally-affiliated departments for dissemination and analysis in the public interest

Language: Google Refine, Freedom of Information/Access to Information Requests

Ex. 2: ATI Request - TTC Noise Complaints 2011 (David Weisz)

DATABASE MANAGEMENT

Organizing, correlating and analyzing large groups of records

Languages: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, SPSS, MySQL

Ex. 3: Parking Ticket Database Chad Skelton (Vancouver Sun)

DATA VISUALIZATION

Presenting data in an attractive way that the general public can understand and interact with.

Languages: HTML5, JavaScript, JQuery

Ex. 4: “What does the modern family look like in your city?” By Ryan MacDonald, Stuart A. Thompson, Murat Yukselir (TheGlobeandMail.com)

GEOCODING

Drawing conclusions from geographic datum; plotting points on a map, as well as geospatial analysis

Programs: Google Fusion Tables, ArcGIS, QGIS

Ex. 5 “CensusFile: Where do you fit in?” Adam Hooper (OpenFile)

WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

PEOPLE!

Photograph by Steve McCurry

WHAT MAKES GREAT DATA JOURNALISM?

Data for data’s sake is not the intent on data journalism

What separates data journalism from reports, audits, projections are people – like all great journalism, the human element is fundamental.

CANADA’S DATA JOURNALISTS Adam Hooper – (Freelance) Fred Vallance -Jones – University of King’s College (formerly Hamilton Spectator) Glen MacGregor – Ottawa Citizen David McKie – CBC Patrick Cain, Keith Robinson and Leslie Young – Globalnews.ca Data Bureau Stuart A. Thompson – The Globe & Mail Jim Rankin, Robert Cribb – Toronto Star Steve Rennie– Canadian Press David Akin – Sun News Roberto Rocha – Montreal Gazette Chad Skelton – Vancouver Sun

DATA JOURNALISM IN CANADA

We have the talent. So what’s stopping us?

CANADA’S DATA JOURNALISM BARRIERS

• Access to Information

• Funding & Support

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Inconsistent data format No unified data format Files can be in .txt, Excel, Access, (if we’re lucky) Usually it’s like this (photocopy of a picture), leading to OCR software, and

headaches Exorbitant Costs Records start at $5 – and can exceed… $2 billion! Timeline From one month to 7 years and beyond

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

5,234 – total number of Federal access requests by news media in the year ending March 31, 2011

Increase of 41% over the year before However…

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

“As a country that was once among the world's leaders in government openness, it is unfortunate that Canada has dropped so far down the list. Partly, this is the result of global progress, with which Canada has failed to keep pace. Canada's Access to Information Act, while cutting edge in 1983, has not been significantly updated since then, and reflects many outdated norms.”

- The Centre for Law and Democracy, Global Right to Information Rating

…In the world’s first RTI Ranking, Canada scored 79 points out of a possible 150.

USA – 89 points

Mexico – 119 Points

Columbia – 82 Points

EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

Newsroom: Toronto Star

Journalists: Jim Rankin, Scott Simmie, Michelle Shepard, John Duncanson, Jennifer Quinn.

• Follow-up to Race & Crime series • ATI requests took seven years and $10,000 • Includes geocoded maps

EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

Updated version of data from previous two stories, as well as updated Toronto census demographic data

EXAMPLE: RACE & CRIME SERIES

THE RESULT?

• Over a dozen stories and features

• Police across the country acknowledge that racial bias exists

• Toronto police partnered with the human rights commission to find ways to improve hiring, promotion and retention of minority officers, and at ways to improve how they police.

INSIGHTS: JIM RANKIN, TORONTO STAR

“Data journalism is nothing new. What is relatively fresh is the ease with which we can now make data visualizations. This is exciting and bosses are starting to get it.

For a long time, it was a very lonely landscape in Canada, with very few journalists who included computer-assisted reporting in their toolboxes. That is changing.

So, where are we behind in Canada? Data visualizations (but catching up). Use of FOIs by journalists (woefully low). Data hosting on MSM web sites. Fewer hybrid [journalists] who can code (also catching up).”

FUNDING AND SUPPORT

…We need it.

Reporters’ Lab

Description:

A project of Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy, with a focus on reducing the cost of original public affairs journalism, with a focus on data journalism

What they do:

• Review enterprise journalism software

• Write and report on matters related to public affairs journalism

• Commission original programs (Timeflow, Video Notebook, Haystax)

KNIGHT-MOZILLA OPENNEWS

The ultimate journalist/hack collaboration

Dedicated to solving online problems related to news coverage and computer-assisted reporting.

KNIGHT MOZILLA OPENNEWS

Hack Days One-off events around the globe where hacks/hackers collaboratively solve

pressing data journalism issues through collaboration and programming

Source Repository of open-source written within the journalism community, including

features exploring the authors behind the code itself

Fellowships Knight Mozilla Fellows embedded in partner newsrooms for 10 months, writing

code that aids online reportage 2013 Fellowships

KNIGHT-MOZILLA FELLOWSHIPS

• New York Times

• BBC

• the Guardian

• Zeit Online

• Spiegel Online

• the Boston Globe

• ProPublica

• La Nacion

Why no Canadian newsrooms?

CANADIAN RESOURCES

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT (FOR EVERYONE!)

Distills large, convoluted issues into relevant information

INSIGHTS: CHAD SKELTON, VANCOUVER SUN

“If done right – database journalism projects can drive much more traffic to news organizations’ websites than a typical series of stories,” says Skelton. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a story on our website – even if it’s about Jon & Kate – that got 2 million hits. So these projects hold out the possibility of a big bang for your buck.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

• Improve our Access to Information system • Create an institutional backbone to help further data

journalism initiatives • Push for broader inclusion of data journalism in

educational curriculums

MY CONTACT INFO

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. “The Data Journalism Handbook”. Edited by Jonathan Gray, Liliana Bounegru and Lucy Chambers. http://datajournalismhandbook.org/ 2. Rankin, Jim. “Brokering Access: Power, Politics, and Freedom of Information Process in Canada,

Chapter 13: The Quest for Electronic Data: Where Alice meets Monty Python meets Colonel Jessep.” Edited by Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby. 3. Skelton, Chad. “Parking Ticket Database.” Vancouver Sun. http://www.vancouversun.com/parking/advanced-search.html?appSession=194338235528792

4. Macdonald, Ryan; Thompson, Stuart A. Yukselir, Murat.“What does the modern family look like in your city?”

TheGlobeandMail.com http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/what-does-the-modern-family-look-like-in-your-

city/article4553070/ 5. Hooper, Adam. “CensusFile: Where do you fit in?” OpenFile http://www.openfile.ca/interact/census

BIBLIOGRAPHY 6. Thompson, Stuart A.; Sukmanowsky, Mike; Weisz, David “Inside the Federal Budget. “ Ad Hoc

Data http://www.adhocdata.ca/federal/ 7. “Global Right to Information Rating: Canada.” Centre for Law and Democracy. http://www.rti-rating.org/view_country.php?country_name=Canada

8. Rankin, Jim; Simmie, Scott; Shephard, Michelle; Duncanson, John; Quinn, Jennifer (2002) “Race & Crime.” Toronto Star – October 19, 20, A1. October 26, 27, A1 http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/raceandcrime/article/760539 9. Rankin, Jim; Winsa, Pattie; Ng, Hidy; Bailey, Andrew. Known to Police. The Toronto Star http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/knowntopolice 10. Rankin, Jim; Bruser, David; Welsh, Moira; James, Royson; Honderich, John. Race Matters. The

Toronto Star. http://www.thestar.com/racemattersr.com/specialsections/raceandcrime/article/760661

DATA JOURNALISM RESOURCES The Canadian Journalism Project: J-Topics: Computer-Assisted Reporting

http://j-source.ca/category/j-topics/j-topics/computer-assisted-reporting The Data Journalism Handbook

http://datajournalismhandbook.org/ National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting

http://www.ire.org/nicar/ Data Driven Journalism

http://datadrivenjournalism.net/ Reporters’ Lab

http://www.reporterslab.org/ Nieman Journalism Lab

http://www.niemanlab.org/ The Guardian Datablog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog knight-mozilla OpenNews http://www.mozillaopennews.org/