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By Natalia Alamdari, IRE & NICAR
Not all data stories have to be serious. Here’s an example: Long Islanders don’t rely on public transportation as much as their neighbors in the city, so Tim Healy and his team at Newsday decided to look at which cars Long Islanders drive, and why. In the end, Newsday was able to give readers a snapshot of which cars are most popular on the island, along with an interactive database where readers can look up the most popular cars in their ZIP code.
How’d they do it?
First, Healy needed vehicle registration data for the two New York counties Newsday covers: Nassau and Suffolk. The state Department of Motor Vehicles makes this available online in .csv format. But once he got the data, Healy realized the state included car makes, but not models.
Healy put out a request for help on the NICAR-L listserv and a member pointed him to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s vehicle listing API. The API could take the state-provided vehicle identification numbers and return the missing model data Healy needed.
Manually running nearly 2 million VINs to find models would be impossible.
Healy and Will Welch, a data developer at Newsday, figured out the most efficient strategy would be to send requests in batches. To run the VINs through the API in bulk, Welch wrote a script in Node.js, so the results could save to his desktop. In the end, for each county, the script took about four hours to return results.
Healy manually cleaned the data for each county, checking ZIP codes and standardizing variations in car model names. He also removed non-passenger vehicles like school buses, firetrucks and hearses from the list. For a smaller data set, he suggests using OpenRefine, a free and open-source tool for working with messy data.
Healy needed an organized way to present 1.8 million records to online audiences. He ended up creating two sortable tables. One sorted cars across the island by popularity — totalling 1,466 different makes and models.
The other was even more detailed, listing out makes and models by ZIP code — a whopping 97,096 rows. The story also included interactive charts that broke down the top ten car colors and the age of vehicles on the island.
Overwhelmed by the 2018 CAR Conference schedule? You’re not alone. With so many sessions to pick from, it can be challenging to know where to start. We have several resources to help you chart a path:
IRE staff created three "Choose your own adventure" guides to help you create a game plan based on your specific skill level and needs.
If you’re attending your first NICAR or are new to data journalism, try our first-timer guide. We’ve identified some core sessions that will help you build beginner data skills, learn the NICAR lingo, bulletproof your work and develop data-driven story ideas.
If requesting and wrangling data is a constant challenge, check out our spreadsheet guide. Our suggested panels and hands-on classes will help you extract vital information from PDFs, big data, paper records, text files, online databases and more.
Finally, if you’re looking to up your viz game, we have a guide for you. Choose your own path to learn illustrations/animations, interactive maps, code-free design and the princples of good data viz.
We're excited to announce that Bill Whitaker will deliver the keynote address at the 2018 IRE Conference in Orlando, June 14-17. The keynote will take place at the IRE Conference luncheon on Saturday, June 16.
From CBS News:
Bill Whitaker was named a 60 Minutes correspondent in March 2014; the 2017-18 season will be his fourth on the broadcast. In four decades as a journalist, he has covered major news stories domestically and across the globe for CBS News.
Whitaker's investigation with the Washington Postrevealed how the DEA's efforts to curb the opioid epidemic were hampered by a law pushed by drug industry lobbyists. The report was credited with forcing the law's chief sponsor, a congressmen, to withdraw his nomination for the Trump Administration's drug czar.
Whitaker's 60 Minutes reporting has been equally wide-ranging and prolific. More than 50 percent of 60 Minutes broadcasts in the 2016-17 season contained segments reported by Whitaker. He has reported from Asia, Africa, Europe, Mexico and the Middle East in his three seasons, including a timely investigation of the vetting process Syrian refugees undergo before coming to the U.S. and an interview with the highest-ranking North Korean official to defect in decades. His report on the biggest data leak in Swiss banking history won an Emmy.
Domestically, his stories have provided keen insights into the hot-button issue of race and policing in America with his reports from Cleveland, Chicago and most recently, Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he got the news-making first interview with the city police officer accused of manslaughter for shooting an unarmed black man. His stories have also drawn attention to death penalty issues in the U.S. and America's heroin epidemic. Whitaker has chronicled the epic battle to capture and hold Mexico's infamous drug lord Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman, gaining rare access to investigations on both sides of the border.
Before joining 60 Minutes, Whitaker covered virtually all of the major news stories in the West since he was posted to Los Angeles in 1992, reporting regularly for the CBS Evening News and other CBS News broadcasts. He also has worked for Sunday Morning, turning out feature stories and thoughtful profiles, including on Barbra Streisand, Norman Lear and Gladys Knight. One of his most memorable Sunday Morning profiles was of ex-boxer Mike Tyson. He has interviewed First Lady Michelle Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Whitaker frequently reported from overseas as well, covering the funeral of Nelson Mandela from South Africa. He also did pieces from Japan on the Fukushima nuclear disaster and from Haiti after the tragic earthquake there. He reported from Kabul during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan.
In 2008, he covered Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He was CBS News' lead reporter covering the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.
Prior to his assignment to Los Angeles, Whitaker served as CBS News' Tokyo correspondent (1989-92). There, he covered stories throughout Asia, including the pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square, military coup attempts in the Philippines and the enthronement of Japan's Emperor Akihito. He was in Baghdad for the build-up to Desert Storm.
Before that, Whitaker was based in Atlanta (1985-88), where he won an Emmy for his reports on the collapse of Jim and Tammy Bakker's television ministry and covered the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis. Whitaker joined CBS News as a reporter in November 1984.
Previously, Whitaker was a correspondent for WBTV-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. He began his broadcast journalism career at KQED-TV in San Francisco, where he was a producer, associate producer and researcher/writer.
Whitaker was born in Philadelphia on August, 26, 1951; he was graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a B.A. degree in American history and from Boston University with a master's degree in African-American studies. Whitaker also holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in 1997.
Thanks to the generosity of many, IRE is fortunate to have funding available to provide fellowships to its training events. These fellowships provide financial assistance to attend IRE boot camps. This month, IRE awarded four fellowships for the March 2018 CAR Boot Camp.
Lauren Rosenthal from North Country Public Radio (Canton, New York), Simone Weichselbaum from the Marshall Project (New York) and Kyle Kaminski from the Traverse City Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Michigan) received the Total Newsroom Training Fellowship.
Total Newsroom Training (TNT) Fellowships are open to those who have completed two days of TNT training between 2013 and 2017.
Additionally, thanks to The Fund for Rural Computer-Assisted Reporting, a journalist from a news organization in a rural area is able to receive the R-CAR Fellowship. Established by IRE member Daniel Gilbert, the fellowship is intended to provide rural reporters with skills that will help them uncover stories that otherwise would not come to light. The fellowship is offered in conjunction with the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky.
Sara Baranowski from the Iowa Falls Times Citizen received the R-CAR Fellowship.
If you are interested in applying for a fellowship for financial assistance for future boot camps, go here for more information and due dates. The next due date is June 18 (to attend the August CAR or Mapping Boot Camp).
The votes are in and the 2018 NICAR T-shirt has been selected!
Melanie Gonzalez won our annual contest. You'll be able to buy her design at the 2018 CAR Conference in Chicago. Any extra shirts will be available for purchase online in the IRE Store.
Matthew Weber was a runner-up and his design will be turned into the NICAR18 button available to all conference attendees.
Thanks to everyone who entered designs and voted.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a Lighting Talk idea for the 2018 CAR Conference. Now it’s time to narrow the 30+ ideas down to the 10 talks we'll hear in Chicago. Go online and vote for your favorite proposals. The polls close on Friday, Feb. 23.
What are Lightning Talks? Lightning Talks are 5-minute presentations on topics wide and varied. NICAR attendees can submit and vote on the talks, and the 10 with the most votes will be presented on Friday, March 9 at 4:45 pm.
Regional television watchdog workshops, data bootcamp fellowships for local TV journalists and a digital TV watchdog portal will be part of a three-year project of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The $390,000 grant to IRE is part of $2.6 million in new funding from Knight Foundation to five organizations. In today’s announcement, Knight Foundation said the initiative would “help strengthen quality journalism and innovation in local television newsrooms across the country.” Other partners include Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Emma Bowen Foundation, Radio Television News Directors Foundation and The Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism. Read the full announcement here.
“With the changes in the media landscape, local television news is positioned to play a key role in supporting the future of informed and engaged communities,” said Jennifer Preston, vice president of journalism at Knight Foundation. “By increasing diversity and promoting innovation and investigative reporting, these projects will create a strong future for local television news.”
IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix lauded Knight Foundation for its commitment to bolstering watchdog reporting and innovation in local TV newsrooms across America. “IRE is grateful for financial support that will help us train even more local TV journalists,” Haddix said. “TV journalists in a variety of roles -- reporters, producers, online editors, news directors and others -- will benefit from this major initiative. Communities also will benefit from more TV watchdog stories that make a positive difference.”
Through the initiative, IRE during the next three years will:
Stay tuned for details about the regional workshops, fellowships and digital TV watchdog portal.
Thanks to the generosity of many donors, IRE is fortunate to have funding available to provide fellowships and scholarships to its annual CAR Conference. Last month, IRE awarded nine fellowships and scholarships for the March 2018 CAR Conference in Chicago.
Gerry Lanosga, an assistant professor of journalism at Indiana University, received the David Donald Fellowship for Data Journalism.
The fellowship was established in 2017 for the late David Donald, a former IRE training director, who spread the gospel of CAR to thousands of journalists, educators and students. The fellowship supports journalism educators to be better equipped to teach students to be effective watchdogs through the use of data.
Laura Moscoso from the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo in Puerto Rico and Aditi Bhandari, of WAMU 88.5 in Washington, D.C., received the Jennifer Leonard Scholarship.
Established by IRE member David Cay Johnston to honor his wife, Jennifer, who is a national leader in promoting ethical standards for endowments. The scholarship supports women studying journalism or in their first three years of their professional journalism career.
Amber Walker from The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), Daisy Contreras Escobar from WUIS/NPR Illinois (Springfield, Illinois), Talis Shelbourne from Media Milwaukee (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Melissa Lewis from The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), Arujuna Soriano from APM Marketplace (Los Angeles, California) and Areena Arora from the Idaho Press-Tribune (Boise, Idaho) received the Chicago Tribune Foundation Fellowships.
The Chicago Tribune Fellowships support IRE’s goal of increasing diversity within the investigative journalism community.
If you are interested in applying for a fellowship or scholarship for financial assistance for future IRE training events, go here for more information and due dates. The next deadline is April 23 (for fellowships and scholarships to attend the June IRE Conference in Orlando).
Lightning Talks are back for the 2018 CAR Conference in Chicago. Pitch your ideas at lightningtalks.ire.org by Feb. 9.
Five-minute talks on any subject. Anyone who is attending NICAR 2018 can pitch and the attendees vote on the talks they want to see. The 10 talks with the most votes will be presented during NICAR.
You have until Feb. 9th to come up with a pitch (or two) and submit it here. Then, on the morning of Feb. 12th, the pitching period ends and the voting period begins. You'll be able to vote for as many talks as you'd like, and the 10 talks with the most votes will be a part of the lightning talks session at NICAR this year. Voting ends on Feb. 23rd and we'll post the official lightning talks schedule within a day or two. Then, all that's left is to come to the lightning talks session on Friday, March 9th at 4:45 p.m. and enjoy!
Here are three pitches that were selected in recent years.
Watch the lightning talks from 2017, 2016, 2015 or 2014, or check out the full list of proposals from last year.
Sisi Wei has encouraged everyone (newbies especially) to pitch a lightning talk, and offered to help coach, prod, brainstorm with, edit, and encourage anyone who needed it. This still applies! If you're interested in pitching and need help coming up with something, read this.
Yes you can! On the other hand, if you've spoken in both 2015 and 2016, please take a well-deserved year off and encourage new speakers to pitch a talk.
The recent death of longtime investigative journalist and former IRE board member Mike McGraw is a significant loss for the IRE community.
McGraw was remembered recently during a memorial service in Kansas City. McGraw was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who served on IRE’s board of directors from 1994-2000. He died earlier this month of cancer at age 69.
Gifts in honor of McGraw can be made to IRE in two ways:
Investigative Reporters & Editors
Attn: Heather Feldmann Henry
141 Neff Annex, UMC
Columbia, MO 65211
IRE always welcomes legacy contributions in someone’s memory. It is a wonderful way for you to pay tribute to those who have made a positive difference in your life and career. The steps are the same as those outlined above; just note the person in whose memory you’d like to donate.
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