Finding Stories in Data

November, 2014 | Ulrich Atz @statshero

Introductions

Your name
Where youve come from
Role
Your aims/expectations for this
session.

Aim

Show you how to source relevant data, how

analyse data, examples of effective use, how to
find insights, and how to visualise and interpret
your findings.

Outcomes

Youll have an overview of how people are telling

stories

You have a sense of the raw work of exploring and

understanding a dataset

You know some inception points for finding a story

Discussion
What is data for you?

EXAMPLES OF
DATA JOURNALSIM

http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/
2012/may/24/data-journalism-punk

Data is a source

Two main methods of

using data as a source
1.

2.

Story first data used to

enhance, fact check, dig
deeper
Data first story
found/presented through data
analysis

Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

Using data as a source must have visualisation

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4b1a2f64-2048-11e3-9a9a-00144feab7de.html

Using data as a source (necessarily) big investigation

http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/02/26/the-eu-could-ban-roaming-charges-completely-this-year/

http://aviation.live.kiln.it/

Show me the money

http://smtm.labs.theodi.org/

Exercise: Find a story

http://bit.ly/odi-stories3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stwer
_Titanic.jpg

Exercise
1. Go through (some of) the Checklist for Exploring Data
2. Create a pivot table
3. Five ideas for finding a story

Choose one story you want to tell

Create a headline

(Bonus: Create a chart, e.g. with

datawrapper.de)

Thank you!

Our top tip: BBC Radio 4 / Podcast

More or Less

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless

HOW (NOT) TO
VISUALISE YOUR DATA

Non-traditional
use of chart
types

Arbitrariness of double axes

Selective use of data

http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/05/16/11-mistakes-that-will-drive-data-nerds-crazy/

Finding a meaningless correlation

http://www.tylervigen.com/

Charts that use ALL THE DATA

Y-axis does not

start at zero