Holding algorithms accountable

By Natalie Lung

Algorithms play an increasingly prominent role in journalism, but we’ve been slow to scrutinize those algorithms like we would any other source.

ProPublica senior reporter Julia Angwin, Stanford computer science Ph.D. candidate Sam Corbett-Davies, and Philip Merrill College of Journalism assistant professor Nick Diakopoulos shared their experience in evaluating algorithmic fairness at the 2017 CAR Conference.

Angwin stressed the importance of independent testing when using algorithms. Her example was a recidivism prediction model. She said that algorithms first published by a company or a professor in a whitepaper come under almost no scrutiny by the jurisdictions buying them. Authorities only put out their own analysis of the recidivism algorithm after they have been using it for years.

She also emphasized the need to examine the outcomes, and not the formulas, when evaluating algorithms. Even if the companies or institutions share their algorithms with you, as they did in the recidivism investigation, that might not be enough. Transparency "may be necessary, but not a sufficient condition" for examining an algorithm, Angwin said.

Corbett-Davies, whose research applies machine learning and statistics to questions of politics and policy, said he found a problem in the recidivism algorithm. He pointed to the lack of transparency behind the training data and the fact that the algorithm has several potentially dubious features. He also told them not to give up on algorithms because they are more consistent than humans (judges).

Diakopoulos introduced “Algorithm Tips”, a database of 5,000 leads on algorithms discovered on .gov domains, which he developed with his team at the University of Maryland. They vetted all the links by using different dimensions of newsworthiness, in hopes of helping more journalists get started with algorithmic accountability.

The 2017 CAR Conference app is now available through Guidebook!

We encourage you to download our mobile guide to enhance your experience at the 2017 CAR Conference. You'll be able to plan your day with a personalized schedule, browse maps and connect with other attendees.

The app is free and compatible with iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Android devices. Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry users can access the same information via our mobile site.

To get the guide, choose one of the methods below:

• Download 'Guidebook' from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace, tap download guides, search for "2017 CAR Conference."
• Visit this webpage and enter your cell phone number to get a text message with a link to download Guidebook. You can also use the widget on the right.

Thank you to our hosts, The Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com and Morris Publishing Group, and our sponsors and supporters: Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, Google, Knight Foundation, Knight-Mozilla OpenNews, Lumina Foundation, and Missouri School of Journalism.

Make sure to visit our exhibitors: Esri, Vigilant Web Inc., and Zillow. Their booths are located on the 3^rd floor sky bridge.

Looking for coffee or a quick breakfast? We are setting up a to-go coffee station on the 3^rd floor sky bridge from 7:30-9:15 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Grab a cup of coffee for $2 or refill your cup for $1. (These prices will not be applicable in the Currents Lounge and Coffee Bar.) Granola bars, pastries, bagels and whole fruit also will be available.

Don’t forget to fill out session evaluations. Click on the link for each session in the Guidebook app. You will also get a daily email with a link to review everything that happened that day. You can use either method. Your feedback is important to us and helps us plan future conferences.

 

THURSDAY:

Help us kick off the 2017 CAR Conference! Stop by the welcome reception in River Terrace 1 today at 6 p.m. Each attendee will receive one drink ticket for beer, wine, soda or bottled water.

 

FRIDAY:

We’ve added two new Friday sessions hosted by the Knight Foundation: “Show them your everything: Optimizing data journalism for trust” at 10:15 a.m. and “Knight Foundation office hours” at 11:30 a.m. Both sessions will take place in Hart, 4th Floor (4106).

Don’t miss our special events Friday afternoon. The Lightning Talks will take place in Conference Center A/B at 4:45 p.m. Stick around for a few minutes after the talks while we present the Philip Meyer Journalism Awards. Then, at 6:15 p.m., join us in River Terrace 1 for a reception honoring the winners. We’ll also be celebrating the life of former IRE training director David Donald who passed away in December.

 

By Carlie Procell

Julia Angwin of ProPublica and Sri Sridharan of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity spoke about ways to cover data breaches as a journalist, along with ways to protect yourself from the hackers.

Ways to protect yourself from hackers

It’s difficult to figure out if your personal data has been stolen, and it’s even more difficult to figure out who did it. Angwin and Sridharan stressed the importance of taking precautions so hackers can’t easily access your personal data, especially since the majority of data breaches happen due to user error. Here are some useful tips:

• Two-factor authentication – Many services like Facebook, Twitter and Gmail offer two-factor authentication to access your account. This means that you not only need a password to log into your account, but also a code that is sent to your phone.
• Long & complex passwords – If your phone isn’t always readily available, Angwin suggested a long and complex password that would be hard for brute-force attacks to crack.
• Update software – Keep your phone applications as well as software on your computer up-to-date. Those updates usually contain patches to fix known vulnerabilities.
• Delete software you’re not using – When you download software, even if you’re not actively using it, your device becomes open to vulnerability.
• Use encrypted messaging apps like Signal or PGP clients like Mailvelope or Postbox for all your conversations with sources.

 

Ways to cover data breaches

• Be careful when using hacked information for the public good, ask yourself if you’re perpetuating propaganda first.
• When you find out a company has been hacked, first ask what kind of data has been breached. Then, ask what the company is doing to contain the attack and if they know how long the attacker has been stealing data. Finally, ask what they’re doing to prevent similar attacks in the future. Is it a proactive or reactive response?
• Ask companies if they have prepared for a breach and what their process would be if it were to happen.
• Remember that hacking can be a political act and not just a financial act. Pay attention to what kind of data is being breached.
• Lean on resources like Canada’s Citizen Lab to help you with investigating malware attacks.
• Look out for future cybersecurity legislation. Currently, there are no fines attached to data breaches. Companies only pay for damages. If there were fines, insurers would have to step in and standards of cyber defense would be put in place to help mitigate attacks.
• The current federal response to breaches is increased surveillance – for better or for worse.
• Turn to the International Association for Privacy Professionals when you need legal help in an information privacy case.

By Huilan Zhan

How do you plan, pitch, and execute a data project when you’re the only data reporter in your newsroom? How do you collaborate with other members in your newsroom who may not understand what you do with data? Google Data Journalism Scholar Eva Constantaras, St. Louis Public Radio data visual specialist Brent Jones, and Louisville Public Media data reporter Alexandra Kanik shared their strategies at the 2017 CAR Conference.

From planning and pitching to executing, Jones provided a list of questions that you can ask while reporting a data project in a small organization.

Plan:

• What data is available? Find credible data sources and available statistics.
• What does your story really need? Find the best way to work with data. It’s not just about whether or not to make graphics.
• What can you do? Figure out whether you have the ability to do that.

Pitch:

• How long will it take? Admit if this particular project is new to you.
• What’s your backup plan? Don’t just say to your boss that you can't finish.
• Who can help? Ask other reporters and data experts for help. NICAR is a nice community where you find people generously sharing their knowledge.

Execute:

• What are you re-thinking? Use checklists, style sheets and save your code.
• What tools do you use? Try news things and know how to efficiently use them.
• What’s next? Learn from what you’ve just done.

Eva Constantaras is an expert in helping to set up data teams in developing countries where data journalism seems unrealistic. Her suggestions:

• Don't reinvent the wheel. Some universal issues such as health care can be adapted to your context.

• Work with data you've got. There are good stories in it. Don't wait for your dream data.
• Start with the question, not the data. Think about questions of public interest.
• It’s about the story, not the visualizations. The closer data journalism comes to explanatory journalism, the more likely the story is to break through the filter bubble.
• Don’t do it alone. Find some civic hackers. Befriend a data scientist. Enlist some university students. Ask questions if you are not sure.

Kanik discussed how to organize data projects by prioritizing tasks with Github.

In a small news organization, data journalists not only work in their own universe, but they also need to communicate with and learn from reporters, editors, and other team members.

The 2017 CAR Conference begins this week. Below are a few bits of information to help you prepare for this great conference! For the latest up-to-date information about panels, speakers and special events, please visit our conference website. 

 

Hotel

The conference is taking place at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront, 225 East Coastline Drive, Jacksonville, FL 32202.

Thank you to Super Shuttle for offering a discount to attendees. Details on making reservations can be found here.

  

Registration

Registration opens Wednesday at 1 p.m. and will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday on 3^rd floor Skybridge at the Hyatt.

 

Weather

Enjoy the warm weather while in Jacksonville. See the 10-day forecast thanks to weatherchannel.com.

 

Wireless Internet

Stop by the registration desk or check the mobile app for the wireless code so you can access complimentary Internet throughout the meeting space. In addition, attendees staying at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront in the group block will receive complimentary basic wireless Internet in their guest rooms. When logging in from your room, you will need to accept the charges; the hotel will credit these prior to checkout.

 

Have a question or need help in a session?

Room monitors will be stationed in the hallways during sessions and will be happy to answer your questions. Additionally, if you need something, email IREhelp@ire.org, and IRE staff will respond as quickly as possible.

 

Hands-on classes

We have a big crowd this year, and it's exciting to have so many new faces. We've added a number of hands-on sessions, but seating is limited. So if there's a hands-on class you really want to take, plan on getting there early.

 

CAR Conference App replaces a printed program

You’re tech-savvy and care about the environment, and so do we. Rather than printing 1,000 schedules, we’re giving you two ways to track the full schedule of panels, hands-on sessions and special events with accurate, up-to-the-minute details:

• The full conference schedule on the IRE website has all details organized by day.
• Download the Guidebook mobile app for the 2017 CAR Conference on your smartphone or tablet. The app is available for iOS, Android, Blackberry and web-enabled devices. Then, create an account on the app so that you can enjoy all of its features and functions. Once you enable push notifications, you can receive updates throughout the conference from IRE. You will have the latest schedule at your fingertips throughout the conference. You can check speaker bios, plan your own schedule, and keep up to date with any panel changes. You also have the option to network with other attendees and complete session/panel evaluations directly from the app (you will also receive a daily email with the evaluation, if you prefer to complete it that way). Please be sure to complete evaluations, as these help us plan next year's conference.

Internet is not required for the app to work once it’s downloaded. However, a connection is necessary to receive any updates sent by IRE.

If you feel most comfortable with a printed schedule, sheets with the daily lineup will be available at the registration desk.

 

Twitter/Student Blog

Use #NICAR17 during the conference and stop by the registration desk to see live tweets on the announcement monitor along with conference blogs. We’ve got a full team of bloggers, and you can see their work online and in the conference app.

 

Social events/outside social events

Be sure to check out the list of special sessions, social events, and other activities taking place this week. Check out the full list here.

 

Contact IRE
We want everyone to have a great conference. If you have any concerns, run into any problems or need to contact a member of the IRE staff for any reason, we’ve set up several ways to reach us. Please remember that whether you’re in a session, walking the hallway or hanging out at the bar, it’s important to respect all of your fellow attendees. IRE and NICAR have long been known for our sense of community, and we should all be sure that everyone feels welcome. 

Reach out by phone: 573-880-5473

Send a text: 573-880-5473

Send an email: IREhelp@ire.org

Complete the form

 

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to seeing you in Jacksonville!

Thanks to everyone who pitched and voted on the 2017 Lightning Talks. Here are the talks we’ll be hearing Friday, March 3 at 4:45 p.m. You can read more about them on our Lightning Talks page.

• CAR through the ages: what I learned from collecting every single NICAR program since 1990 — Christine Zhang
• Subverting the story model in the age of Trump — Tyler Fisher
• Stuff I've said to FOIA officers to get them to give me ... well, stuff — Cezary Podkul
• What I learned by submitting the same FOIA more than 1,000 times — Steven Rich
• Self-care for Nerds — Aditi Bhandari
• How to collaborate when no one understands what you do — Caelainn Barr
• Everything I Wasted Time Worrying About as A Newbie Coder — Kate Rabinowitz
• Using Uber's open data to understand cities — Cory Kendrick
• 58 stupid things we learned from mapping all 25,000 of California's election precincts — Joe Fox
• Literally Everything The New York Times Knows About Elections — Jeremy Bowers

The 2017 CAR Conference app is now available through Guidebook!

We encourage you to download our mobile guide to enhance your experience at the 2017 CAR Conference. You'll be able to plan your day with a personalized schedule, browse maps and connect with other attendees.

The app is free and compatible with iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches and Android devices. Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry users can access the same information via our mobile site.

To get the guide, choose one of the methods below:

• Download 'Guidebook' from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace, tap download guides, search for "2017 CAR Conference."
• Visit this webpage and enter your cell phone number to get a text message with a link to download Guidebook. You can also use the widget on the right.

By Olivia Martin, Freedom of the Press Foundation 

Foreign correspondents traveling to the U.S. should request to speak to their lawyer if they are detained, stopped for questioning, or compelled to give up decryption or social media passwords at the U.S. border. Before leaving home, it is recommended that they have their attorney's contact information memorized or written in a paper notebook. 

While the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) do not usually provide rapid-response legal support, journalists should feel free to contact their representatives if they believe they have been subject to an unlawful search or seizure. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also provides legal advocacy in the case of unlawful device seizure or tampering. 

Ultimately, however, the question of whether to comply or not can only be answered by the individual. To minimize the risk of divulging personal or source information, journalists should travel with as little compromising data as possible.

Olivia Martin is a Digital Security Fellow at Freedom of the Press Foundation and will be discussing security tools and tips for journalists worldwide at the CAR Conference.

Several IRE members were honored Sunday, Feb. 19, with a George Polk Award for Journalism, one of the most prestigious prizes for enterprise and investigative journalism in the world.

• Ali Winston of the East Bay Express shared the award for Local Reporting for “Badge of Dishonor,” an extraordinary expose of human trafficking within the Oakland Police Department.
• The Arizona Republic’s Craig Harris discovered that several government agencies in Arizona were purging their ranks of women, the elderly, and minority employees. His series, including the article “Arizona fires teacher in the midst of her breast-cancer fight,” won for State Reporting.
• The award for Justice Reporting went to National Public Radio’s Joseph Shapiro and The Marshall Project’s Christie Thompson for “Doubling Up Prisoners In 'Solitary' Creates Deadly Consequences.” Their investigation of prisons nationwide found that inmates in “solitary” are sometimes given a cell-mate, whether or not it is safe to do so.   
• Brian M. Rosenthal of the Houston Chronicle sent shock waves through his state with the revelation that “Texas quietly keeps tens of thousands of disabled children out of special education.” His series won the award for Education Reporting.
• WNYC’s Robert Lewis won the Radio Reporting award for “NYPD Allows Top Cops Wide Range of Financial Interests With Little Oversight.” Lewis revealed that New York’s police department rarely checked on how its officers made money on the side, even when those jobs created conflicts of interest.
• The award for Television Reporting was shared by IRE members, A.J. Lagoe and Steve Eckert of KARE-11 in Minneapolis. Their series “Invisible Wounds” showed how their state’s Veterans Administration had mishandled (and sometimes misdiagnosed) scores of cases.
• Several members of IRE also worked on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ massive “Panama Papers” investigation, which received the Financial Reporting award.

The full list of winners can be read here.