Online journalism class

Devinisi

Computer-assisted news reporting refers to anything that uses computers to aid in the news-gathering process. Melisma (Cox School of Communication, University of Miami)

Computer-assisted reporting is the use of computer to gather and analyze the data necessary to write news stories

Definisi

CAR is the use of computers and social science methods to acquire and analyze information to do stories that otherwise would be difficult or impossible.

By Steve Doig, Cronkite School of Journalism Arizona State University

How CAR works?

The spread of computers, shofware and the Internet is changing how reporters work. Reporters now routinely collect information in databazes, analyze public records with spreadsheets and statistical program, study political and demograpic change with geographic information system mapping, conduct interviews by e-mail, and research background for articles on the Web.

History

Scattered examples starting with news polling in the 1950s

“Precision Journalism” written by Phil Meyer in 1972

Handful of U.S. reporters start using personal computers in early 1980s

NICAR started in 1989 First CAR Pulitzer in 1989 CAR spreads outside the U.S (Jose Roberto

de Toledo in Brazil!) Today: Thousands of reporters use it around

the world

History

CAR's greatest growth has been in recent years, coinciding with the adoption of computers for everyday use. Its roots, however, go back decades. One researcher argues the "age of computer-assisted reporting" began in 1952, when CBS television used a UNIVAC I computer to analyze returns from the U.S.

History

presidential election. One of the earliest examples came in 1967, after riots in Detroit, when Philip Mayer of the Detroit Free Press used a mainframe computer to show that people who had attended college were equally likely to have rioted as were high school dropouts

History

In the last 15 years, journalism organizations such as the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR, a program of Investigative Reporters and Editors) and the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting (DICAR), have been created solely to promote the use of CAR in newsgathering.

History

Many other organizations, such as the Society of Professional Journalists and the Canadian Association of Journalism, offer CAR training or workshops. Journalists have also created mailing list to share ideas about CAR, including NICAR-L, CARR-L, JAGIS-L and Cancar.

Two branches of CAR

1. Online research: Looking for information

2. Data analysis: Looking for patterns

A few CAR topics

Crime and justice Elections Campaign finance Property values Racial segregation Environment Education Transportation

Weather and disasters Agriculture Public opinion Health care Sports Business Demographics Taxes and spending

Why journalist use CAR?

CAR enables us to publish stories that our readers want and can't get anywhere else.

CAR will help us create, or improve, the watchdog culture at our newspapers.

CAR helps us recruit and retain good reporters.

By Pat Stith (http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=83144)

Getting Data

Search Google – filetype:xls and domain:.br (thousans pages!)

If there is a web lookup, there is a database behind it

Data analysis dangers

Problem: You become “the expert” Mistakes caused by:

Carelessness Bad data

Statistical programs

SAS and SPSS (and Excel) Good for basic statistical tests

Mean, median, ranking, etc. Chi-square Linear regression

website

http://www.census.gov/ipc/aidsdb/Map5.gif