Institutefor
AnlyticJournalism
Institutefor
AnlyticJournalism
Prof. Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, New Mexico USAt o m @ a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . o r g
Analytic Journalism: Investing in an Intellectual Portfolio
to Secure Journalism's Financial Future
Durban, South Africa11 September 2006
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Journalism is…
“The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.'‘ —Bill Kovach
Committee of Concerned Journalists
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What journalists do
The job of journalists is "to monitor the centres of power." Israeli
journalist Amira Hass
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Today’s objectives
Discuss journalism (and journalists) as a species existing in the Datasphere
Review the changes in the information environment
Suggest steps journalism can (Should? Must?) take to adapt to those changes if we are to survive
Suggest the possible disappearance of the species journalist serioso
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Analytic thinking/journalism
What is it? Where did it come from? How does it work? What are the necessary variables?
Frame the appropriate question Find and retrieve appropriate data Use appropriate analytic tools Show what you know with story-
appropriate media
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The why and the wherefore of Analytic Journalism
Dramatic change in info environment Changes in how modern societies
relate to datainformation What is Analytic Journalism? Objectives of the Institute for
Analytic Journalism
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The Changing Datasphere
Laws
Econ
Demographics
Entertainment
News
The Datasphere:that conceptual environment where all data all data existsexists in all forms, all media
Cultural knowledge
All of history
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Species in the Datasphere
Lawyer
Economist
Insurance
adjuster
Driver of garbage truck
Journalist
The Datasphere:
that conceptual environment where all information-information-processing processing speciesspecies reside
Teacher
Historian
Cop
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Communications Revolution
1st Era =
Symbols Print Paper Ink Writing
2nd Era =
3rd Era = 10101010101010101010101000101110
0101
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How big is the change?
93% of ALL information – audio, video, print – produced worldwide in 2003 was originally in digital format
See UC-Berkeley study on Dataspherehttp://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/index.html
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Major trends in dynamic Major trends in dynamic DatasphereDatasphere
Definition of literacy expands “Transparency”
Global Governments, NGOs, corporations
Data acquisition power shift to individual “Available Data Index” &
“Journalism Info/Utility Index”
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ADQ: “Available Data Index”
High
Low
ADI
Time
Digital Revolution
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JIQ: “Journalism Info/Utility Index”
JII
High
Low
Digital RevolutionAvail. Data Index
Time
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JIQ: “Journalism Info/Utility Index”
High
Low
Avail. Data Index
High
Low
Digital Revolution
High
Citizens’ Zone of
Contempt, Disregard,
Irrelevance, for the press
JII
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Journalism and pre-Digital Revolution
Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism
Canon of Ethics Constitutional freedoms/ legal restrictions
History of Profession
Journalism education: “To serve the profession,” not lead
RW-P processReporting Writing Publishing/Producing
Good at description; far less good at analysis
Journalist as “white-hunter poet” (aka “General Assgn. Reporter”)
Driven by adrenalin, not intellect
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Attributes of Digital Revolution
Data -- public and private -- in 1s and 0s divorced from physical media
Cheap, powerful desktop & communications hardware
Cheap, powerful analytic tools Constant, rapid change in Datasphere
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Effects of Digital Revolution
Fluid, ubiquitous data and results Reproducible data and info without
cost. How to add value? New definitions of literacy RRAW-P Process
ResearchReporting Analysis Writing Publishing/Producing
Need for constant teaching/learningHow did journalism respond?
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Journalism and post-Digital Revolution
Post-Digital RevolutionChanges
Various circulation and marketing strategies, e.g. zoning, newspaper-TV ties, etc.
Eventually, PCs/I-net in offices & newsroom
“Soft news”
Shovelware web sites
CAR (Computer-assisted Reporting)
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Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism
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Leading-edge journalism in Digital Age
CAR (Computer-assisted Reporting)
Acquiring or creating digital data sets
Learning/utilizing new – for journalism –knowledge/analysis tools, i.e. sprdsheets, DBF, simple stats, GIS to make maps
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1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101 1001010101010010101010101
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Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism
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Retrieve/adapt methodologies from other disciplines
Analytic Journalism in Digital Age
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Pre-DigitalRev, TraditionalJournalism
Anthropology
Geography
Biology
CriminologyAccounting
Data Mining
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AJ “borrowed” methodologies
GIS Epidemiology; Urban planning; Enviro-sciences;
Crime analysis; Cyberspace; Mapping of Concepts
Computational Linguistics (King and Lowe’s “Rare Events in International Conflict”)
http://gking.harvard.edu/files/infoex.pdf
ThemeRiver http://www.pnl.gov/infoviz/infoviz/themeriver.pdf
Forensic Accountinghttp://www.forensicaccounting.com/home.html
Visual Statistics & Complex Adaptive Systems- Web Map http://www.webmap.com/ - Epstein, Steinbruner and Parker. “Modeling Civil Violence: An Agent-Based Computational Approach” http://www.brook.edu/es/dynamics/papers/cviolence/cviolence.pdf
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Focus always international Retrieve/adapt methodologies from
other disciplines IAJ: hinge between other disciplines/
methodologies and journalism Adopt new analytic tools appropriate
for journalism, e.g. AskSam, Cartagio, ArcGIS
Focus on making data – broadly defined – available for user customization and analysis
Analytic Journalism in Digital Age
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Hunter College-NYTimes satellite maps of WTC disaster
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John Snow’s aledged cholera map- London - 1854
John Snow’s alleged cholera map
London - 1854
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Urban Planning Sat. Pics-Lotlines
Urban Planning Tax assessments Public utilities/services Traffic Planned growth? Sprawl? Educational planning
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Environmental Planning – watershed map
English River Watershed Study by students in
Mid-Prairie Middle School Kalona, Iowa
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Portland, Oregon Crime mappingNote how database
produces graph and map. Portland, Oregon site at http://www.portlandpolicebureau.com/crimemapper.html
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Conceptual mapping of cyberspace
VR visualization of Web traffic
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PowerPlayers1Mapping power relationshipshttp://theyrule.orgo.org/
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“ThemeRiver” computational linguistics and resulting visualization of news story themes.
“Theme River” computational linguistics
and resulting visualization of news story topics.
Curves indicate “tension index” over time
Source: http://www.pnl.gov/infoviz/graphics.html
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Online enterprise Dynamic system model
Source: http://www.simventure.com/models.html
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Data mining – advanced Business Intelligence software
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s
%253D1738%2526a%253D7640,00.asp
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Database software – online and shrinkwrapped
http://www.pcmag.com/article/0,2997,s%3D400%26a
%3D14601,00.asp
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Some Analytic Journalism teaching materials
Statistics - http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/stat2.htm E-mail tracing - http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/tracing.htm Middleberg/Ross survey -
http://people.bu.edu/ssr3/cyber7.htm Covering the Census, with GIS -
http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/census.htm Basic numbers skills -
http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/NUMBER12.htm Evaluating what you find -
http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/eval.htm Calculator for confidence levels in polls -
http://www.columbia.edu/~ssr3/confross.htm
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Inst. for Analytic Journalism
General Systems TheoryStatisticsVisual Statistics and Infographics
Simulation modeling
Our “Cornerstones”
Institutefor
AnlyticJournalism
Institutefor
AnlyticJournalism
Prof. Tom JohnsonInstitute for Analytic Journalism
Santa Fe, New Mexico USAt o m @ a n a l y t i c j o u r n a l i s m . o r g
Analytic Journalism: Investing in an Intellectual Portfolio
to Secure Journalism's Financial Future
Durban, South Africa11 September 2006