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6 Data Journalism Blogs To Bookmark, Part 1

 

Editor’s note: We are not publishing this article about data journalism blogs to bookmark just because the DJB is one of them. Alright, partly because of that but also because we think the other blogs mentioned  are the ultimate references for data journalism. Also because it mentioned the Mozilla Festival and that we really loved the event. Which blogs would YOU add to the list? Let us know in the comment section!

10,000 WORDS – By Elana Zak

Today is the start of Mozilla Festival, a weekend-long celebration of sorts that brings together web developers, journalists, media educators and students to work on open web projects and learn from one another. #MozFest’s program includes design challenges, learning labs, presentations and more. There will also be plenty of time for people to simply chat with one another and possibly brainstorm the next idea that will transform the web.

One event that stood out to me calls for a group to kickstart the writing of a data-driven journalism handbook. Led by the Open Knowledge Foundation and the European Journalism Centre, the project’s goal is to create a handbook that will “get aspiring data journalists started with everything from finding and requesting data they need, using off the shelf tools for data analysis and visualisation, how to hunt for stories in big databases, how to use data to augment stories, and plenty more.”

Data journalism has quickly become a popular field yet many reporters are still in the dark about it. How do you go about getting the data? What do you do once you have the data? A perfect resource would be the data journalism handbook, but since it hasn’t been written yet, I came up with a list of six blogs that should definitely be added to your bookmarks tab, whether you’re looking for inspiration, basic skills, or advanced knowledge.

The first three are below and the last half will be published on Monday.

ProPublica Nerd Blog

ProPublica is constantly creating amazing tools using data journalism. In the last year, they’ve created apps that delve into topics such as education and healthcare. On the Nerd Blog, members of ProPublica’s News apps desk not only explain the latest apps and how to use them but also how the team created them. I highly recommend you check out the post, “Scraping for Journalism: A Guide for Collecting Data.” Dan Nguyen, a ProPublica news developer, gives a step-by-step explanation of how the team created itsDollars for Docs app and shows readers exactly what tools to use to recreate the app (or even make another one.)

The Guardian’s Data Blog

Almost every week, The Guardian is rolling out stories and graphics based on data journalism, many of which are highlighted on its Data Blog, making it a great place to go for inspiration. For example, take a look at their story on where the super poor are in the US. It includes maps and charts, all derived from a ton of data. While the site is aimed at already experienced data journalists, it is a great place for all levels to go and see what the experts in the field are doing.

Data Journalism Blog

The Data Journalism Blog isn’t specifically attached to any one news organization but instead acts more as an overall resource for data journalists. The site, led by multimedia journalist Marianne Bouchart, not only displays examples of great graphics, but it also provides how-tos, guides, and interviews with other data journalists. If you’re looking for a new concept to try out or where the next data journalism seminar will be held, I’d recommend visiting this blog.

Don’t forget to check back on Monday for Part 2: 6 Data Journalism Blogs To Bookmark.
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ProPublica’s newest news app uses education data to get more social

NIEMANLAB – By Megan Garber

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released a data set— the most comprehensive to date — documenting student access to advanced classes and special programs in public high schools. Shorthanded as the Civil Rights survey, the information tracks the availability of offerings, like Advanced Placement courses, gifted-and-talented programs, and higher-level math and science classes, that studies suggest are important factors for educational attainment — and for success later in life.

ProPublica reporters used the Ed data to produce a story package, “The Opportunity Gap,” that analyzes the OCR info and other federal education data; their analysis found among other things that, overall and unsurprisingly, high-poverty schools are less likely than their wealthier counterparts to have students enrolled in those beneficial programs. The achievement gap, the data suggest, isn’t just about students’ educational attainment; it’s also about the educational opportunities provided to those students in the first place. And it’s individual states that are making the policy decisions that affect the quality of those opportunities. ProPublica’s analysis, says senior editor Eric Umansky, is aimed at answering one key question: “Are states giving their kids a fair shake?”

The fact that the OCR data set is relatively comprehensive — reporting on districts with more than 3,000 students, it covers 85,000 schools, and around 75 percent of all public high schoolers in the U.S. — means that the OCR data set is also enormous. And while ProPublica’s text-based takes on the info have done precisely the thing you’d want them to do — find surprises, find trends, make it meaningful, make it human — the outfit’s reporters wanted to go beyond the database-to-narrative formula with the OCR trove. Their solution: a news app that encourages, even more than your typical app, public participation. And that looks to Facebook for social integration. [Read more…]