The Long History of Data Journalism (1907-2011)

C.W. Anderson College of Staten Island (CUNY)

Social Science History Association November 19, 2011

Boston, MA

“What reporters know and don’t report is still news– not from the

newspaper point of view, but from the sociologists and

novelists.” (Lincoln Steffens, 1931)

How Are Practices of Empirical Social Research Changing in the

Digital Era?• Journalism as an “odd

form” of empirical social research

• Digitization • New Forms of

Journalistic Evidence

Three “Generations” of Journalism

• Media and the Survey Movement

• Precision Journalism • “Algorithmic”

Journalism

What Was the Pittsburgh Survey?

• A pioneering social-science study of urban conditions in Pittsburgh (1907-1908).

• Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation.

• One aspect of the larger “survey movement,” one cornerstone of Progressive Era reform efforts.

• Relation to later sociology?• Relation to journalism?

An Uneasy Hybrid

• “From the perspective of almost a century, it is possible to see the Pittsburgh Survey as an amalgam of three different strands of social research.” (Anderson and Greenwald, 1996)

Relation to Earlier and Later Sociology?

• Survey was part of sociology’s roots in social reform.

• Most important jurisdictional conflict in professional history of field is between sociology and social work (not journalism).

• Mania for documentation & publicity, but limited statistical rigor or analysis.

Relation to Earlier and Later Sociology?

• Story told is usually an institutional history (ex: Turner 1996).

– Survey movement rested on a conception of “social manager” as “social engineer.”

– Success would come from --> A combination of power and publicity.

– Survey movement failed in its practical goals.

– And it failed to impact sociology methodologically.

Professionalization (1920’s)

• Sociology• Social Work• Policy and Planning• Journalism

From the perspective of institutional history, then, the

overlapping relationship between journalism, sociology, and

reform found in the Pittsburgh Survey was glancing and

indirect.

Beyond Institutional History: Empirical Technique and Objects

of Evidence

• Survey’s relation to journalism?

• Survey’s “mania for comprehensiveness.”

• Rise of the magazine and conceptions of journalistic deadlines.

• Lack of statistical analysis versus the “rise of the variable.”

Fifty Years Later …

• Philip Myer and the rise of “computer assisted reporting.” • Precision Journalism (1973)• “Meyer’s book, which sought to define new forms of journalistic

work based on statistical data analysis, became a leading reference point for individuals involved in the computer-assisted reporting movement.” (Powers 2011)

Beyond CAR: Big Data and “Algorithmic” Journalism

• Algorithms: A predetermined set of instructions for solving a specific problem in a limited number of steps.

• Hybrids: Made up of both– Human intentionality /

social structure AND

– Technological affordances

Research (Historical)• Methodological discourse around empirical techniques• Comparison: Park and Giddings. Two journalists who

became sociologists:– their methodological attitudes towards the survey.– their attitudes toward “higher journalism.”

• Comparison: local newspaper coverage of the survey vs. other forms of survey publicity (magazines, etc).

• Comparison: Institutional discourse within professional journals.– How did Editor and Publisher talk about sociology– How did the American Journal of Sociology talk about journalism

Research (Social Science)• An institutional analysis of the Computer-Assisted

Reporting (CAR) community – its relation to “precision journalism.”

• Ethnographic analysis of big data journalism projects.– PANDA Project– Overview Project