Comments on: Independent Study: Data

By: News Reporting and Public Records » Blog Archive » A focused study on CAR

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:35:02 +0000

[...] this works out. Already, we’ve gotten lots of feedback from those in the field about some ideas . But here’s what we’ve decided on: she’ll develop a topic and specific research [...]

By: First week of the last semester — SOJo: Student of Online Journalism by Megan Taylor

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 01:56:10 +0000

[...] semester I am taking an independent study on Computer-Assisted Reporting. I blogged about this last week, but to recap briefly: I will be learning how to find, clean and analyze data. At the end of the [...]

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:36:18 +0000

TORTURE those data, YEAH!!

By: William M. Hartnett

William M. Hartnett — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:30:15 +0000

@Mindy: I think the IRE folks say “interview the data,” though I actually like your version better. Maybe even “waterboard the data.”

By: Mindy McAdams

Mindy McAdams — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:46:53 +0000

Gosh, isn’t this cool? :) I think Megan was thinking about finding a big old dataset so she could first learn how to “interrogate the data,” as they say in IRE. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) But I see how that is putting the cart before the horse if she is also going to produce a story package.

I’m concerned that she has only one semester (and other classes and stuff too) — I would hate to see her spend too much time collecting data, and she doesn’t have time for a FOIA request. What I hope she will learn is how to do the stuff Mark and Matt and Derek do — after they’ve got the data.

I’m out of my comfort zone on this, however.

By: Cory Armstrong

Cory Armstrong — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:10:32 +0000

Gosh…I love all of the helpful feedback Megan is getting. I think everyone has given her great advice. I’m starting to think this will be a bit of a group effort.

My two cents is this: Matt’s right about the fishing expedition being a bad idea. My first task for Megan is to think about what she wants to study and come up with some research questions: What are we looking for? Crime patterns? Tuition changes? Salaries fluctuations? Air quality?

Once you come up with the idea to study–then think about what kinds of datasets would provide that kind of information.

The worst thing to do–and I think that all of the great comments here have addressed this, at least implicitly–is to have a preconceived notion of what you expect the data to tell you. Using tunnel vision in this case will often result is a pretty biased story.

By: Megan Taylor

Megan Taylor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:50:23 +0000

Thanks Matt. The professor and I haven’t really worked everything out yet, so I’m kinda poking around on my own. I think we’ll probably play with some random data first and then I’ll look for my story. Thanks for the advice.

By: Matt Waite

Matt Waite — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:38:57 +0000

Megan: Looking for data to find a story in it is a mistake. The best editor I’ve ever had told me that data before story usually leads to a bunch of no-s***-sherlock journalism. Ideally, you need to find a story, and then find the data to tell the story, not the other way around. Getting some experience importing, sorting, aggregating and generally handling datasets is fine. It’s a good idea. But for your final project story, start by looking for a story and then look for the data. It may be found in one of the datasets you’re playing with, or one available online. It may be in a DIY one like Mr. Hartnett describes (and don’t fear those — some of the best stories are in DIY databases, and they aren’t black box magic to make). You live in the best of all places for this kind of work, so at first, divorce yourself from the notion that you have to have data to find a story. Find the story, then find the data.

If you get stuck, holler at me. This independent study idea is a great one. Let me know if I can help.

By: Megan Taylor

Megan Taylor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:36:14 +0000

Dave, I got an A in Stats 1, and I did well in stats in high school, but I’ve probably forgotten most of it by now. Professor Armstrong is in charge of helping me remember. :)

By: Dave Stanton

Dave Stanton — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 03:13:06 +0000

What is your statistical toolset? Looking at tons of data isn’t very useful (imo) without some concept of how you plan to compare your variables and understand associations. Bug me once you have a more solid idea of your dataset.