I’m pulling together a list of data journalism projects (started below) by picking projects that could be interesting in some way to journalists starting out in this area looking for some inspiration and a little ‘howto’ assistance.
Later this month I’ll be joining colleagues from the Media and Digital Enterprise to help host our first Data Journalism Camp (DJCamp2013) in Istanbul – a place where journalists face a challenging environment when pursuing investigations.
In compiling this list I’m conscious that a lot of work in this area involves well-resourced big media groups which can be a bit daunting for independent operators and smaller outfits so I’m particularly interested in tracking down examples where the story is told using free or cheap tools and can be handled with a smaller staff (i.e. without a team of 16 devoting six months to it!)
So, although I’ve included the ‘big hitters’ at the bottom – including the winners of last year’s inaugrual data journalism awards – I’m keen to explore more modest examples too. Please do feel free to share links to any via the comments below (or twitter, email) and I’ll add them to this resource, they can’t be too small……
Maps
- A google map created by The Detail gives a postcode district breakdown of the response times to Category A (life threatening) calls made to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service during 2010 and 2011.
- Crime down your street series from the Manchester Evening News also uses Google maps to create clickable crime league tables from data provided by Greater Manchester Police during early 2012.
- Ongoing map created by Guardian Music readers using n0tice.com to map their reviews and tips of music gigs across the UK.
- Using the very simple tools in Google fusion tables to cope with very large datasets in the case of The Guardian’s wikileaks Iraq war deaths map.
Spreadsheets
- Simple and easy-to-follow google spreadsheet shows the number and cost of exit packages for council staff who left in 2010/11 and 2011/12 in Welsh local authorities compiled by journalist Claire Miller at WalesOnline from information with the council’s statement of accounts.
- The Telegraph also used google docs to detail the original MPs expenses investigation.
- The Guardian routinely published spreadsheets from news stories at the Datablog. There’s a list of the 2012 spreadsheets from the year’s top data stories available here.
Other visualisations
- Animated video, The spread of tech over time, which journalist Caroline Beavon says took her two hours to do and she details how.
- Generative art piece that shows in a graphic and acoustic way the many deaths caused by drug wars in Mexico (mainly during 2009 and 2010)
- Using free calendar tools to tell a story with Homicide Watch DC which seeks to ‘Mark every death. Remember every victim. Follow every case.’
Those international award winners……….
FBI Terrorists. (Mother Jones and UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, USA) – data-driven investigations, national/international
Methadone and the Politics of Pain (The Seattle Times, USA) -data-driven investigations, local/regional
Riot Rumours (The Guardian, UK) – data visualisation and storytelling (national/international)
Transparent Politics (Polinetz AG, Switzerland) – data-driven applications (national/international) explores and illustrates voting patterns in the Swiss parliament
http://nick123.ru/dtp2011/#result (Nikolay Guryanov, Stas Seletskiy and Alexey Papulovskiy, Russia) – data visualisation and storytelling (local/regional)
http://schools.chicagotribune.com/ (Chicago Tribune, USA) – data-driven applications (local/regional)
* I’ve also started bookmarking useful blogposts for data journalism at Diigo with the tag djcamp all suggestions and links gratefully received.
Updated: Suggestions from twitter
@foodiesarah We tried not to present it as one too much, but #offshorescrets ( guardian.co.uk/offshore-secre… ) was data-driven
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) January 2, 2013
@foodiesarah HMI Olympics helpmeinvestigate.com/olympics/
— Craig McGinty (@craigmcginty) January 2, 2013
Dim Sum Digital 