14 May Craig Fergus – Digital Journalism 2 Workbook
WEEK 1: For the first lesson of the module, we learnt about data journalism, and why journalists use data in stories to provide background and explain developments. We also got a better understanding of three different types of data journalism in a newsroom – investigative data journalism, general data journalism, and real time data journalism. Another thing we learnt was regarding ‘freedom of information’ and how to submit requests for it online.
WEEK 2: In the morning session with Michael, we started looking at the different ways in which data can be illustrated – then, we moved on to data visualisation and understanding how a story can be found via research in datasets. During LJ’s afternoon class, we were taken through each weeks tasks for this module then learnt about the final assessment and infographic we will be expected to produce. From this, we talked about infographics and understanding how we could use different ones to illustrate different types of data. Finally, we registered onto Lynda.com so we can access tutorials for infographics whenever we need.
WEEK 3: We discussed at length the previous weeks homework, which was about the State of the Union speeches. Then Michael taught us about different data terminology such as the mean, median, modes and averages and also about understanding the difference between percentage and percentage points of data. Later in LJ’s class, we stayed in the newsroom and each table was given several infographics, one of which we had to choose to discuss in front of the class. We had to state what was good and bad about it, and what could be changed to improve it.
WEEK 4: This morning, we looked at data stories and discussed stock exchange, and how important data is for it. We then done an exercise where we had to find three news stories from the BBC News website and see how we could develop them into data sets. The class had an afternoon workshop with a man who showed them how to use Microsoft Excel, however I was unable to attend.
WEEK 5: Today we had a guest lecturer from LSBU who spoke about data protection and what we can do to prevent secure data from getting leaked. After that, Michael showed us several sources where we can find datasets to use for our final infographic. This afternoon was another Microsoft Excel workshop, where we used data from police forces nationwide and learned how to narrow it down to the information we want / need.
WEEK 6: Valandis Zotos from data analysis company Fighthoax came in for our morning session, and we were shown the basics of how to use the website to discover the true accuracy of published news articles. LJ was unavailable this afternoon, and we had a meeting with people from Ryerson University in Toronto about potential exchange opportunities. This week, I also submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request for data regarding an increase / decrease in acid attacks in London – a potential idea for my final infographic project.
WEEK 7: We were put into groups this morning and tasked with researching stories suitable for the Fighthoax app. Although it was interesting, I would have rather been doing something directly linked with finding our data sets. I am considering doing a different story than London acid attacks for my final project, because I want to get started as soon as possible and freedom of information requests take three weeks to process. Then, in LJ’s class, we used Adobe inDesign to help us create the layout of our infographics. We practiced finding a news story and creating an infographic-style poster using the software to help us get used to it, as it is one of the ways we can create our final infographic.
WEEK 8: I have decided not to wait for the freedom of information request about London acid attacks, and have thus found a different data set, this one being the use of knives in London. I think this will make an overall better infographic, because there are a lot more pre-existing news articles about this subject so I will be able to find better research to use alongside my data. Later with LJ, we used VisMe to make mock infographics, giving us another option for what software to use for our final infographic. For my final infographic, I am focusing on the statistics from 2011 up to when the dataset was published in November 2018. The story I am going to do will look at the dataset in depth, and research potential reasons as to why the levels of knife crime have fluctuated in the last eight years.
(Dataset: https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN04304#fullreport)
WEEK 9: This morning we done our final class on Fighthoax. This afternoon, I had a one to one with LJ, and she gave me some interesting ideas on how I can improve both my data story and infographic. This week, I also found some interesting articles I can incorporate into my work, which include data from City Hall and APPG about police cuts in London and cuts to youth services in the borough of Westminster followed by the increase of knife crime in the area. (Links: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/knife-crime-uk-stabbings-youth-service-cuts-government-austerity-a8901856.html https://www.london.gov.uk/city-hall-blog/police-numbers-london-lowest-level-head-20-years)
WEEK 10: This week I met with Michael to discuss further ideas for my infographic and data story. Then, I made my infographic. I used the website https://piktochart.com/formats/infographics/ as it had the template most similar to the one I had sketched out on paper when planning how I would make my infographic (the template name is ‘productivity’). In my infographic, to show the thousands of knife crimes that occurred each year in London (research from my dataset) I used a knife symbol to show one thousand crimes. I rounded it off to the closest 1000 for each year, because the numbers were so precise there wasn’t a way I could present them clearly using symbols. Another way I presented statistics in my infographic was using 168 symbols of stick-figure men to backup the statistic ‘for every 100,000 people in London, there are 168 knife crimes’. I think this makes my infographic look more professional as the number of stick figures matches the statistic alongside it.
