Data-driven enterprise off your beat - Steve Doig - Seattle NewsTrain - 11.11.17

DATA-DRIVEN

ENTERPRISE

OFF YOUR BEATSteve Doig

Cronkite School of Journalism

Arizona State University

steve.doig@asu.edu

@sdoig

WHY DEVELOP

DATA SKILLS?

Your resume

Your resume

What have you done with data?

Our agenda today

How to:

• Identify the skills you need

• Find data on your beat

• Develop your data story idea

• Get started with Excel

• Pick your next data story

and get going!

WHAT SKILLS DO

YOU NEED?

Brain tools – math and statistics

Brain tools – math and statistics

FINDING DATA

FOR YOUR BEAT

Finding data story ideas

Data sources on your beat

• Local bureaucracy

• Whistleblowers

• Regulators

• Licensing bodies

• Lawmakers

• Federal agencies

• Academics

Recognize data when you see it

Recognize data when you see it

• Police corruption

• Campaign finance

• Vote fraud

• Slum lords

• Environmental problems

• Kickbacks to public officials

• Shady business practices

• Dangerous medical devices

• Racial discrimination

• Abusive teachers

Data-heavy

investigations

DEVELOPING YOUR

DATA STORY IDEA

Work backwards from your idea!

• What statements do you want to make?

• What variables are needed to make those

statements?

• Who would collect data with those

variables?

• How will you get the data from the collector?

1. Statements?

• Lede = your hypothesis

• Bullet points = your

statements

• Examples for a crime and courts story:

• “Crime has increased/decreased X %

since...”

• “The X per 100,000 violent crime rate of Y

City is the worst ...”

• “An average of X drivers are arrested every

day for DWI...”

1. Statements?

• Examples for a crime and courts story:

• “Robberies peak between X and Y o’clock

on Z day...”

• “Only X % of reported crimes result in

arrests...”

• “One out of every X vehicles registered in

Y City gets stolen ...”

• “The average sentence from Judge X for

robbery is Y years...”

1. Statements?

2. Variables needed?Columns are the variables.

2. Variables needed?Rows are records

2. Variables needed?• Two main kinds of variables:

• Categorical: Sex, city, postal code, type of

crime, hospital, type, etc...

2. Variables needed?• Two main kinds of variables:

• Numeric: Age, cost, population, weight,

arrests, revenue, income, etc...

• ...

• Example: variables for crime and courts story

• Type of crime

• Population

• Date, time

• Location

• Number of victims

• Arrest made?

• Disposition, judge, sentence...

2. Variables needed?

3. Who collects those variables?

4. Get the data!

Public records tools

Data formats?

EXCEL EXERCISES

Excel tools

•Sort

•Filter

•Functions

•Pivot tables

What’s your data story?

What’s your first step?

Steve Doig Steve.Doig@asu.edu @sdoig