[ddj] Defining datajournalism

[Tom Kronenburg]

Dear Nicholas,

I will publish a report on open data and datajournalism on the ePSIplatform.eu<http://ePSIplatform.eu>

In it, I recognize 4 types of activities that i consider datajournalism. (naturally, with any definition you draw lines that are a bit arbitrary)

" There are four basic types of data journalistic activities. All four types can use PSI, and we will provide examples of how journalists used Open Data to write their stories. Data journalists use (open) data
To discover newsworthy facts or stories [from data]
To discover trends hidden in [large] datasets
To compile datasets for further dissemination to the public.
To create data visualisations."

1: is what you might consider CAR (even though i understand that CAR is as much an umbrella-word as data-journalism).
2: is different from 1, because the timing is different. I'd say the first category is about a single event, while 2 is about trends.
3: is what you call "Database Journalism" or structured journalism.
4: I have swept together all visualization/interaction stuff in one category: "Infographics, dataviz, interactive viz (for me the same as dataviz, although with different tools) - same goes for serious games".

So, basically, i think we agree on the main points that are in there.

I don't really know whether or not distinguishing category's 1 and 2 is important, but for me it feels like they are very different types of activities. The first is 'searching' through datasets, combining single lines, whereas trend discovery is much more about statistics, massive computation and such.

When the report is published, i'll let you know.

Kind regards, Tom


Tom Kronenburg

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tom.kronenburg at zenc.nl<mailto:tom.kronenburg at zenc.nl>
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Op 6 okt 2011, om 10:30 heeft Nicolas Kayser-Bril het volgende geschreven:


Datajournalism has been widely used to unite several concepts and link them to journalism. Among these are:


 *   Computer assisted reporting and data-driven journalism, where journalists make use of large databases to produce stories,
 *   Infographics,
 *   Data visualization,
 *   Interactive visualization,
 *   Serious games, in the sense that they take interaction a step further, and
 *   Database journalism or structured journalism, an information management system where pieces of information are organized in a database (as opposed to a traditional story-centric organizational structure).

I also plan to rework several entries, notably:

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