Transcript
Using Data for Science Journalism
10 May 2015, International School of Science Journalism, Erice, Italy Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana!
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg
Jonathan Gray Liliana Bounegru
Ideas, inspiration, methods and approaches for using data in science journalism.
Menu of ideas/options + design your own
1. A Brief Introduction to Data Journalism!2. Using Data to Tell Stories in Science and
Technology Studies (STS)!3. Networks in Journalism
1. A Brief Introduction to Data Journalism
Growing use of data and computational approaches in newsrooms.
Predecessors to data journalism - from social survey movement in 1900s
to “precision journalism” in 1960s.
“Computer Assisted Reporting” (CAR) tradition in the United States.
Emergence of term “data journalism” in 2000s.
Wikileaks commonly cited as a turning point.
How to handle, explore, analyse and present hundreds of thousands of leaked documents?
Social and cultural “data turn”.
Rise of interest in potential of data and data technologies in many areas of life.
Use of data in the service of journalism.
Sources of data?
For example
Governments (portals, FOI, leaks) Scientific research (open access, open data)
Civil society organisations and companies User generated/citizen data
Data extracted from digital media
Open access to scientific data and publications
Government data portals
Government data about…!!• Public finance • Contracts • Campaign finance • Elections • Companies • Lobbying • Pollution • Environment • Events and crises
data.gov.x
A selection of themes and topics from national!(UK and US) and local (Glasgow) open data portals
CCTV Camera Locations - Runnymede Borough Council!http://data.gov.uk/dataset/cctv-camera-locations
CO2 emissions by different sub-groups in manufacturing sector, 2000 to 2008!http://data.gov.uk/dataset/co2-emissions-by-different-sub-groups-in-manufacturing-sector-2000-to-2008/
Open Data
vs.
Freedom of Information?
What kinds of projects?
A few examples…
Luxembourg: http://www.icij.org/project/luxembourg-leaks
Journalists collect and publish data too.
The Migrants Files: https://www.detective.io/detective/the-migrants-files/
New forms of journalistic collaboration around data?
Questions or thoughts?
2. Using Data to Tell Stories in Science and Technology Studies (STS)
http://digitalmethods.net
http://www.medialab.sciences-po.fr/
http://www.densitydesign.org/
Some conceptual background…
–Tommaso Venturini, Controversy Mapping, climaps.org
“Controversy mapping was introduced by Bruno Latour as a teaching method to train students and future citizens to
navigate socio-technical debates through the creative use of digital media.”
!“The political aim of controversy mapping is to provide innovative methods for approaching scientific and
technical disputes. ”
– Richard Rogers, “Political Research in the Digital Age”, International Public Policy Review, 2014
“[Digital methods] refers to repurposing online devices and platforms (such as Google searches, Facebook and
Wikipedia) for social and political research that would often have been otherwise improbable.”
– Bruno Latour & Tommaso Venturini, “The Social Fabric: Digital Traces and Quali-quantitative Methods”, Proceedings of Future En Seine, 2009
“The interest of electronic media lies in the fact that every interaction that passes through them leaves traces…”
- Duncan J. Watts, “A twenty-first century science,” Nature, 2007
“Data about Internet-based communication and interactivity could revolutionise our understanding of collective human
behaviour.” !
– David Lazer et al., “Computational Social Science”, Science, 2009
“…[T]racing the spread of arguments, rumours, or positions about political and other issues in the blogosphere, as well as the behaviour of individuals ‘surfing’ the Internet, where
the concerns of an electorate become visible in the searches they conduct.”
–Noortje Marres & Carolin Gerlitz, “Interface methods”, The Sociological Review, forthcoming
!“Social media data tend to be organised in ways that favour highly particular modes of analysis, such as the investigation of people’s ‘networks’, the ‘influence’ of actors, the ‘reach’ of content or the ‘currency’ of certain words at certain moments
in time.”
“… A holistic understanding of digital social research, which recognises that its analytic capacities derive from the
assembly of methods, data, tools, user practices, context of application and so on.”
–Noortje Marres & Carolin Gerlitz, “Interface methods”, The Sociological Review, forthcoming
Richard Rogers and Saskia Kok, 2015
Some examples…
New York Times (2014) “The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State”
New York Times (2014) “The Thanksgiving Recipes Googled in Every State”
Mapping climate change adaptation
Findings!
Both adaptation and mitigation are highly visible in negotiations.
Mitigation has been a top priority from the beginning.
Adaptation received less attention in the beginning with the exception of adaptation financing
Adaptation becomes more important in the second phase of the negotiations.
Notable stability in presence and intervention of countries.
Most active are China (representing G77), United States and Europe.
Notable exceptions include Bolivia and Philippines who are becoming more
prominent in recent negotiations.
Countries tend to be more active when they host the negotiations.
“…the negotiations on climate change have moved from mitigation to also include adaptation, an issue which could in principle be seen as a national responsibility.
Here it becomes particularly acute to justify which countries should receive aid and why. A much
debated method for doing so is the assessment of vulnerability to climate change.”
!- climaps.org
DARA Climate Vulnerability Model.!Available at: http://download.daraint.org/CVM2-Low.pdf
Who is vulnerable according to whom?
Climaps (2014). Available at: http://climaps.org
Findings
• Vulnerability indices tend to disagree in their assessment of different countries.
• Very few countries (7) are among the most vulnerable according to all three indices.
• Quite a few countries (25) are simultaneously assessed to be most vulnerable and least vulnerable according to different indices.
• The assessment of climate change vulnerability by means of indicators continues to be a contentious issue divide in both policy and academic communities.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/
Mapping the influence of climate change sceptics
BBC News (2007) “BBC switches off climate special”. Available at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6979596.stm
– Richard Rogers, Digital Methods, MIT Press, 2013
“The skeptics were increasingly at the top of the news. […] Are the skeptics at the top of the
web too?”
Climate Sceptics!!
S. Fred Singer Robert Balling Sallie Baliunas
Patrick Michaels Richard Lindzen
Steven Milloy Timothy Ball
Paul Driessen Willie Soon
Sherwood B. Idso Frederick Seitz
Climate Sceptic Organisations!!
American Enterprise Institute American Legislative Exchange Council
Center for Science and Public Policy Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Competitive Enterprise Institute Frontiers of Freedom
Marshall Institute Heartland Institute
Tech Central Station
Digital Methods Initiative (2007) “Climate Change Sceptics”.Available at: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ClimateChangeSkeptics
Climate change sceptics appeared to have disproportionate influence in the media relative to their influence with other prominent climate
science organisations on the web.
TerraEco (2010) Kit de Survie pour un Diner avec des Climatosceptiques
Are climate skeptics mainstream or fringe in climate science?
Do the skeptics and their co-authors publish articles in the same disciplines and journals as other climate scientists?
Sabine Niederer, “‘Global warming is not a crisis!’: Studying climate change skepticism on the Web”, Necsus, 2013
Findings
• Sceptics are part of the mainstream of climate change science research.
• Skeptical climate science is not positioned outside the field but is part of climate science (ecology, meteorology and atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, plant sciences, agronomy, etc.)
• The skeptics publish in the top climate journals including Nature and Science.
Mapping climate publics on the web
How may we map debates around socio-technical issues with the web?
Climate change policy and activism organise distinct publics
Digital Methods Winter School (2015)
Mapping the rise of the far right in Europe with the web and social media
The Guardian (2013) “The rise of far right parties across Europe is a chilling echo of the 1930s”.Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration
Huffington Post (2014) “Sudden Rise of Far Right Groups in EU Parliament Rings Alarm Bells Across Europe”. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elinadav-heymann/sudden-rise-of-far-right-
_b_5512961.html
New York Times (2014) “Populist Party Gaining Muscle to Push Britain to the Right”.Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/populist-party-gaining-muscle-to-push-
britain-to-the-right.html
What are the recruitment methods of far right groups?
Are current recruitment counter-measures proving effective?
What kinds of issues are most active amongst far right groups?
How are far right extremist groups connected to populist right and other right wing groups?
Profiles for 13 European countries.
1. List of links per country
2. Analyse links between them
3. Study issues and actors
Findings
New issues (e.g. environment, anti-globalisation and rights), principles and
recruitment techniques.
Counter-measures are outdated. !
Islamophobia is located primarily in the North.
Greece: blood and soil and organic markets
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
Hungary: horse and yurt recruitment festivals
Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy
Taking back the yurt?
Counter-Jihadist groups on social media
The Guardian (2012) “Far-right anti-Muslim network on rise globally as Breivik trial opens”. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/14/breivik-trial-norway-mass-murderer
Hope Not Hate (2012) “Counter-Jihad Report”.Available at: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/counter-jihad/
Are different Counter-Jihadist groups in Europe connected? If so how?
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Findings
Facebook is an important medium for extremist groups.
!Three main clusters based on geographical
proximity. !
European Counter-Jihadist groups are networked and transnational.
Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”
Who are the new leaders?
Findings!!
Offline leaders are active on Facebook. !
There are also new emerging online leaders. !
New technique for identifying online leaders.
Questions or thoughts?
3. Networks in Journalism
The rise of networks
Mark Lombardi’s “Narrative Structures” (1990-2000)
Josh On’s “They Rule” (2005)
Networks have yet to have their “breakthrough moment” in journalism
“Follow the Networks” project at!Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University.
How are networks concepts and analysis being used in journalism?
A proposed classification of narrative functions for networks in journalism
Five different ways in which networks have been used in journalism
1. Showing networks around a single actor
2. Revealing hubs or authorities (key actors)
New Scientist, “The Stem Cell Wars” (2010)
JoongAng Ilbo, “Park Young-joon at the Center of!President Lee Myung-bak’s Human Resources Network” (2002)
3. Showing scale, complexity and topology of a network
New York Times, “Among the Oscar Contenders, a Host of Connections” (2013)
4. Showing alliances and oppositions
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère politique" (2012)
Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)
5. Showing evolution of networks over time
Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère
politique" (2012)
Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)
How might networks concepts and analysis be used in journalism in the future?
Functions of network analysis in the newsroom!!• Presentational or storytelling device • Story discovery • Exploratory analysis of complex networks
and big databases • Newsroom knowledge management • Internal reference resource
Opportunities !• New insights into large and complex
systems • More network analysis, rather than just
network mapping • New data and methods for tracing networks
using social media and hyperlink analysis • Identifying new sources for interviews • Researchers and journalists collaborating to
tell stories about complex topics
Challenges !• Lack of awareness • Lack of flagship projects • Time, resource and budget constraints • Lack of technical capacity and tooling • Speed of tools and methods • Lack vocabulary for talking about network
analysis
Questions or thoughts?
Ideas for data sources, methods, approaches and narrative structures.
Design your own!
If you’re interested in learning more…
School of Data Journalism at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia
#ddj hashtag on Twitter
Thank You!Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg
top related