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Posts Tagged ‘data’
IRE Radio Podcast | One Killer Algorithm
Thomas Hargrove spent decades reporting for the Scripps Howard News Service — until he was abruptly laid off in 2015. Then things got interesting: Court battles, destroyed records, and an algorithm that just might be able to spot serial killers. You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play. Have a story…
Read MoreUsing data to investigate the planet
By Haotian Mai A panel of environmental reporters gathered at the 2017 CAR Conference to discuss stories based on public and private data sources. Dinah Pulver of the Dayton Beach News-Journal helps build and maintain the paper’s database of shark bites. In addition to their own database, Pulver also finds water.usgs.gov useful for a variety sources of…
Read MoreSecuring data, sources and yourself
By Uliana Pavlova We live in the age of cybersecurity, when it is more important than ever to protect our information and sources digitally. Olivia Martin from the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Mike Tigas of ProPublica offered useful tips and tools on digital security for journalists at the CAR Conference. Why does security…
Read MoreData on the radio: How to turn numbers into characters in your story
By Anadil Iftekhar Data is boring. Numbers are confusing. Limit them, hide them, focus more on people. Haven’t you been hearing this a lot lately? “We are here to say you shouldn’t do that,” said Will Craft. Craft and his colleague, Madeleine Baran, work at American Public Media. In a 2017 CAR Conference panel, they…
Read MoreHow to find and use housing data
By Haotian Mai “It’s a fascinating time to be studying housing,” said Skylar Olsen, a senior economist from Zillow. On Thursday, Olsen sat on a housing data panel with Tim Henderson, a demographics writer and data analyst for Stateline, at the 2017 CAR Conference. For companies like Zillow, housing data fuels their services. For homeowners,…
Read MoreHow journalists can distill wide, complicated data
By Dariya Tsyrenzhapova How do journalists make sense out of the abundance of data out there? Are medians and averages actually accurate representations of reality? What are the best ways to improve your storytelling with numbers? Larry Fenn, a data journalist with the Associated Press, Paul Overberg with the Wall Street Journal and Holly Hacker…
Read MorePlaying money ball: how to investigate sports institutions
By Daniel Levitt Sports data often gets overlooked as a source of investigative stories. But Steve Doig of Arizona State University and Paula Lavigne of ESPN showed journalists that we can – and should – hold sports organizations accountable. Both Doig and Lavigne entered the sports journalism world from other beats. Doig covered science, education…
Read MoreInvestigating hacks and data breaches (plus preventing your own)
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…
Read MoreHow to execute big data stories in small newsrooms
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…
Read MoreWhen checking your mailbox isn’t enough: 3 tips for investigating local elections
Image by Justin Grimes. Used under Creative Commons License. In September, New York Times reporter Susanne Craig checked her mailbox. Checking for snail mail wasn’t abnormal for her, but what she found was: a copy of Donald Trump’s 1995 tax returns. The document led to a notable scoop for the Times and plenty of lessons for reporters. Craig…
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