[ddj] Defining datajournalism

Tue Oct 11 16:12:49 UTC 2011

Hi all, sorry for the delay of my answer.

Nicolas, I completely agree that getting close to real-time is a
pan-journalisma topic. However my point was that the instrumentation of the
world - producing mostly structured data - and the massive adoption of
social/mobile networks by people - unstructured data - points out a good
opportunity to get close to real-time. And, in my opinion, this is a very
good opportunity to approach that pan-journalism challenge from d-driven
journalism.

I will try to write a proposal to include an unstructured data paragraph in
the entry, and I'll share with all of you for feedback. Ok?
Thanks a lot for your views and comments.
Best regards,
Marco.

2011/10/6 Nicolas Kayser-Bril <n.kayserbril at gmail.com>

> Marco,
>
> Many thanks for your input.
>
> There's no wonder we don't have the same definition: Scholars haven't been
> able to agree on a universal definition for journalism for the past 50
> years! (which is perfectly normal as Adrian Holovaty, Bob Woodward and the
> anchor on Rossiya1 don't have anything but this name in common). That's why
> I prefer using "information management".
>
> Concerning the quest for real-time information, I believe it is a
> pan-journalism issue. After I realized that the entry about journalism
> didn't mention timeliness at all, I've added "in a timely fashion" at the
> end of the definition ("*Journalism* is the practice of investigation<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research>
>  and reporting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporting> of events, issues
> and trends <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fads_and_trends> to a broad
> audience in a timely fashion.")
>
> As for unstructured data, you're absolutely right that structuring
> heterogeneous bits of data is part of data-driven journalism (say, when you
> OCRize a scanned paper to obtain an XLS file). Do you want to add a
> paragraph about it in the DDJ entry?
>
> best
>
> nkb.
> --
> Datajournalist since 2007
> nkb.fr <http://nkb.fr?m>
> +336 50 57 53 80
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 5:41 PM, marco Laucelli <mlaucelli at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>> this discussion is very exciting to me, and I would be happy to get your
>> feedback on the following, that is just a summary of my thoughts of what
>> DDJournalism means to me. In the usual definitions of Data Journalism I've
>> found, as those cited in your previous mails, there are at least two
>> important aspects I find lacking:
>>
>> *1) Getting closer to real-time:* As the technology is evolving the world
>> is becoming more and more instrumented and interconnected, as a consequence
>> there would be a large amount of data created and transmitted in real-time,
>> involving interactions and transactions among people, devices and physical &
>> logical entities. The ability of developing capabilities to monitor that
>> data traffic and detect noticeable events - based on data - seems to be one
>> of the future scopes of Data Journalism. In the future it seems to me
>> important considering News Media and journalist being able to detect,
>> contextualize and rapidly analyze data-events and translate them into
>> interesting news. Very simple example of this could be traffic events,
>> emergencies, etc... Some would be noticed and published by public and
>> private entities, but the technical ability and the skills to do so
>> independently should be  in my opinion - one of the objectives of future
>> journalism.
>>
>> *2) Use of unstructured data: *there is a tremendous focus - in what
>> refers most common DDJournalism references - on structured data, and in
>> particular on structured data coming from public entities (Open Data). It
>> seems to me very important for the future DDJournalism being able to capture
>> relevant and noticeable information from unstructured data and in particular
>> from digital conversations such those being held in social networks. The
>> ability of structuring that information, and combining it with structured
>> data is crucial - in my opinion, again - to get complete insight of what is
>> happening behind data. I think that any definition of DDJournalism should
>> take into account seriously unstructured data.
>>
>> I've put my views on the different flavors of DD Journalism in a chart
>> explaining<http://datajournal.tumblr.com/post/11101761764/an-high-level-view-of-what-are-in-my-opinions>the conceptual links between time-scales and the data sources for DD
>> Journalims. I'm currently working on a definition of the underlying
>> conceptual architecture - tech capabilities, processes & skills - to support
>> those different flavors. I would really appreciate any feedback on this, and
>> I'm completely open to collaborations for this purpose.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your interest.
>> Kind regards,
>> Marco.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 2011/10/6 Nicolas Kayser-Bril <n.kayserbril at gmail.com>
>>
>>> #done
>>>
>>> Changelog:
>>>
>>>    - Creation of entry Datajournalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datajournalism>
>>>    - Complete overhaul and change of meaning of Database journalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_journalism>
>>>    - Creation of Structured journalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structured_journalism>,
>>>    which redirects to Database journalism
>>>    - Re-creation of the page Computer-assisted_reporting<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_reporting>,
>>>    which, in my opinion should be merged with data-driven journalism
>>>    - Proposal of a merger of Computational Journalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_journalism>with data-driven journalism
>>>    - I've also tried to clarify and wikify the Data driven journalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_driven_journalism>entry, but that'll take time.
>>>
>>> All contribution/feedback/edit war welcome!
>>>
>>> nkb.
>>> --
>>> Datajournalist since 2007
>>> nkb.fr <http://nkb.fr?m>
>>> +336 50 57 53 80
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Nicolas Kayser-Bril <
>>> n.kayserbril at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Mirko, Tom,
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks for your feedback! It concurs to the idea of datajournalism
>>>> as a byword for 'new stuff in information management', starting from data
>>>> collection and how to envision a story to interactive apps.
>>>>
>>>> I'll include your points in the Wikipedia entry!
>>>>
>>>> Best
>>>>
>>>> nkb.
>>>> --
>>>> Datajournalist since 2007
>>>> nkb.fr <http://nkb.fr?m>
>>>> +336 50 57 53 80
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 11:29 AM, Tom Kronenburg <tom.kronenburg at zenc.nl
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear Nicholas,
>>>>>
>>>>> I will publish a report on open data and datajournalism on the
>>>>> 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
>>>>> *
>>>>> *Zenc | Focus op oplossingen
>>>>> *Alexanderstraat 18
>>>>> 2514 JM Den Haag
>>>>> KvK:  27190312
>>>>> Tel:  +31 70 3626944 of +31 6 55778353
>>>>> Fax:  +31 70 3921835
>>>>>
>>>>> tom.kronenburg at zenc.nl
>>>>> www.zenc.nl
>>>>> *
>>>>> *
>>>>>        *
>>>>>
>>>>> *
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 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:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> data-driven-journalism mailing list
>>>>> data-driven-journalism at lists.okfn.org
>>>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/data-driven-journalism
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> data-driven-journalism at lists.okfn.org
>>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/data-driven-journalism
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> @mlaucelli
>>
>>
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-- 
@mlaucelli
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