Data Journalism: A Way To Get Hired

James Ball at News Rewired

It would’ve been rude NOT to use a phone, laptop and tablet (preferably all at the same time) at the latest News:Rewired conference. Even the speakers sent tweets while fellow panellists presented at the fast paced, energetic event.

Data Journalism was one of the hot topics discussed, debated and dissected during the day by industry experts. Freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke, key note speaker, called for a continuing campaign to get more data into the public domain.

Compared to the US, Brooke said the UK had a long way to go, particularly in the field of crime reporting. She argued police control the agenda here about how the public perceive crime and that on many levels bureaucracy should be challenged.

In the digital age of citizen journalism and blogging Brooke said professional journalism still had a place. She said people would always come to professionals because of their unique selling point – their training and expertise to sift through information to uncover what is important and true.

And so to Data Journalism – analysing numbers and making a story out of them. Nothing new in that for the seasoned journalists at the conference – including Greg Hadfield, director of strategic projects, Cogapp, who refused to call it data, preferring the word “stuff”.

There was much talk of “drilling down” numbers and putting them in context but journalists (or “curators” as they seem to be referred to these days) have always known the end result of most investigations is to workout out how much it’s going to cost the reader.

What is new though, is how journalists crunch the numbers: how they “scrape” the web for data with simple and usually free tools such as Google Docs, Google Refine, ArcView and other stats packages, advanced searches and Google fusion tables.

And then there are the tools for presenting those facts to the readers – sophisticated graphics, charts, representations and the incorporation of interactivity for the user. A word of warning though, from James Ball, data journalist with the Guardian investigations team, not to “kill the audience” with incorrect stats. He gave examples of national newspapers getting their numbers spectacularly wrong and Ball appealed to journalists working on numbers always to ask them selves, “does this make sense?”

Chris Taggart, founder of OpenlyLocal said there has been no better time in this country to get data from councils and there are tremendous opportunities out there for the taking to investigate and use freedom of information requests.

Philip John, director of Lichfield Blog showed how he made the most of the data produced by his local council Lichfield and sites such as Data.gov.uk, WhatDoTheyKnow? and ScraperWiki.

Building open-data cities was the focus for Greg Hadfield who said councils, organisations and local groups should work together to share data to help improve communities and “give the voiceless a voice.”

Powerful stuff and food for thought for trainee journalists, particularly as one speaker admitted, many established journalists are scared of data and so trainees should get into data journalism as a way to get hired.
Louisa Hannah

Brighton to become one of first Open-Data Cities?

Journalist and internet guru Greg Hadfield shared Fleet Street experiences and innovative ideas for an “open-data” Brighton and Hove with an audience which included Brighton Journalist Works students, writes Al Horner.

From regional reporting at the Wakefield Express to Fleet Street stints at the Sunday Times, Daily Mail, Sunday Express and DailyTelegraph, Greg forged a 30-year career in journalism out of sheer hard work and unflinching enthusiasm for reporting.

The talk, at The Eagle in Brighton, was at the February meeting of BFONG (Brighton Future of News Group) and was full of enlightening insight, interesting asides about the world of reporting and honest admissions into the pressures which go with the job – “every deadline is like pulling teeth,” Hadfield laughed.

His résumé is, to be frank, littered with the kind of illustrious positions on national papers aspiring journalists like me can only dream of. However, Greg elected to spend a sizable chunk of his speech happily recalling his time at the Wakefield Express and discussing the merits of local journalism. To the Journalist Works students who are each dipping our toes into community reporting on The Argus as part of the course, it was great to hear.

Greg is currently campaigning to make Brighton and Hove an “open data” city. If he is successful, the region could soon be one the first places in which local authorities’ statistics and data is all readily available online. The face of journalism could very well change in a way hinted at by the data-born expenses scandal and Wikileaks stories that dominated last year’s headlines.

Clutching a copy of George Orwell’s seminal “Why I Write,” Greg said the author is his inspiration. But while Orwell explored the hop-fields of Kent and streets of Paris for stories, Hadfield is exploring a more digital landscape for the future of journalism.

“Open data is changing our lives for good,” he said, “People living and loving in Brighton and Hove can create a new form of journalism using data and produce something George Orwell would have been delighted with.”

Follow Greg Hadfield on Twitter: @GregHadfield

BFONG blog: brightonfutureofnews.wordpress.com

Greg explains Open Data:  Open Data Cities: A lifeline for local newspapers