when data journalism meets science | erice, june 10th, 2014
DESCRIPTION
Introductory lesson about data journalism within science journalism and science communication during the International School of Science Journalism 2014 in Erice (June 10th, 2014).TRANSCRIPT
ALESSIOCIMARELLIDatascientistatDataninja
[email protected]|@jenkin27
dtnj.it/erice14
InternationalSchoolofScienceJournalismTheDigitalWorld(Erice,June10th,2014)
akajenkin
PASTMasterDegreeinPhysicsattheUniversityofRome"LaSapienza"
MasterinScienceCommunicationattheInternationalSchoolforAdvancedStudies(SISSA-ISAS)inTrieste
PressofficerattheEuropeanLaboratoryforNon-LinearSpectroscopy(LENS)inFlorence
PRESENTFreelancedatajournalist,webdeveloper,opendataactivist,citizenscientist,...
Datajournalism&datavisualizationmadeinItaly
Youknowverywellhowitworks...:)
Astopic
Storiesabouttheedgeofscientificresearchandhumanknowledge.
Keyroleinrelationshipbetweenscienceandsociety.
Sciencejournalistcanbeawatchdogagainstfalsescienceand scientificfrauds.
Asmethod
Itwouldbeevidentin ,becausetheworkflowissimilartopoliceinquiriesorscientificresearch.
Manyinformationsfromdifferentsources,accountabilityproblems,hypothesisandproofs,trialanderrorcycles,andsoon.
Notonlyastory,butalsoadiscoveryitself...
Awordinabuzzwordsera
whenhisinvestigationisultimatelybasedon(ordrivenby)digitaldata,heacquiressuchprefix.
Ifajournalistwanttotelltheworld,andtheworldisnowmadeofdigitalandquantitativeinformations,hehastoacquireskillsinmanagementandinterpretationofdata,orhewillmissanopportunity.
Teamworkandmultidisciplinary
Nosefornews,publicinterest,intuitionbasedoncontestknowledge
Analyticalmind,mathematicalandstatisticalskills,intuitionbasedonscienceofnumbers
Teamworkandmultidisciplinary
Problemsolving,hi-techknowledgeinhardwareandsoftware,nerd(orgeek,ifyouprefer)mood
Artisticsensibilityandintuition,knowledgeinUserExperiencetheoryandtechniques
Miners,dustmen,researchers,andstorytellers
Publicsearchenginesordeepweb?Official5-starsopendataorwebspidersandscreenscrapers?Monitorandkeyboard,smartphoneandtouch,orbootsandmud?
Datashouldbereadbymachinesandnotbyhumans!Datasetscouldhideerrors,inconsistencies,lies...orshowonlyapartofastory.
Miners,dustmen,researchers,andstorytellers
Normalizationsandcomparisons,filtering,grouping,aggregation,correlations,...
Howtorepresentnumbersandrelationsamongnumbers?Yes,witharabicnumerals,butpicturesareworthathousandwords...aslongasyoukeepinmindthattherearefactsbehindthenumbers,and
(copyrightofTheGuardian).
Inmethod
Yourunintoadatasetandfeelthepresenceofapossiblenews...OR
...youhaveaninterest,anidea,athesis,soyouarelookingfordata.
Havingquantitativedataaboutaphenomenonmeansthatsomewherethereisa youhavetounderstand,test,verify...andinterpret!
Datathemselvescansuggestnewwaysforyourinvestigationorevenfalsifysomehypothesisorassumptions.
Commonsense,intellectualhonesty,professionalethics
Somerandomexamples
NewScientistAppstornadoeswarmingworldexoplanetsplancksealevel
TheTelegraphmapofwindfarm
SortingalgorithmsMeteorites
EarthJournalismNetwork
by GlobalEditorsNetworkHealth
(NYT)(ProPublica)
(ProPublica)Environment
(ProPublica)(CenterforPublicIntegrity)
(LaStampa)(LaStampa)
Astronomy(NYT)
Energy(PlanbureauvoordeLeefomgeving)
AmericanWayofBirth,CostliestintheWorldInsidetheGovernment'sDrugDataWhichEmergencyRoomWillSeeYoutheFastest?
NewYorkfloodsBreathlessandBurdenedWhenItalyisshakingItaly,adelicateland
Kepler’sTallyofPlanets
Biomassa
Researchdata,scienceworld,citizenscience
Hardsciencesandsocialsciences
Ok,neitherLHCpetabytesareforjournalists,norstatisticaldatafromepidemiologicsurveys.
But ,or(open),whynot?
Ifyouarenotspecializedinaspecifictopicorifyoulacktheknowledgeabouttheframework,youcanasktoanexpertyoutrust.
Youcanalsousenumbersnotinaninvestigation,buttotellacomplexstoryusinginfographicsandinteractivevisualizations.
Bibliographies,socialnetworksofscientists,infrastructures
Scienceisahumanactivityandanindustry(almost)likeanyother.
HowaretheEuropeanfundsinvestedinscientificresearch?Wherearethecentersspecializedinthetreatmentofspecificdiseases?Whysomewellknownmonitoringtechnologiesarenotusedinsomecountries?
Sensor-basedjournalism
Cheapelectronicsandsensors+
openhardware+
freeinformationsharing=
datafromstakeholdersotherthanscientists
It'searly,butpromising:SwissMakeOpenDataCampsJapanGeigermapat-a-glanceCitizenScience&Sensors
Ifyouhavedata,it'sbetterifyouknowhowtodealwiththem.
Ifyouthinkyoumayfindsomedata,it'sbetterifyouusethem.
Ifsomeoneusedata,it'sbetterifyoucancheckhisclaims.
Playwithdataisfunny!
Welcometothejungle!
Someexamples
PublicadministrationInternationalorganizationsNGOsCivicactivistsPressofficesLeaksSocialnetworksJournalisticsourcesSinglejournalistsOurselves...
Datamadepublicandreusable
(USA)(UK)
(Italy)(Indonesia)
...
Data.govData.gov.ukOpenDataHubOpenIR
Rememberthebuzzwordera?
Datafrombigscienceexperiments(Atlas,HumanBrainProject,...)
Socialnetworks(Facebook,Twitter,butalsoeBay,Amazon,...)
Maybeit'snotforjournalists,butit'sahottopic...
GoogleEarthEngine
Formachine,notforhuman
Thekeywordis !
Awell-formedtablerepresentastructureddataset.Alistoffacebookcomments,articlesofanewspaper,arecordedspeecharenotstructureddata(andsoarenotmachine-readable).
Italldependsontheformat
IfwehaveGladstoneGanderasbestfriend:spreadsheet(xls,xlsx,ods,csv,tsv);not-so-commongoodformats(xml,sql,json,shp,kml,...).
Ifwearenotsolucky:tablesorlistsinwebpages(html);simpletablesinwell-donepdfs(pdf).
IfwehaveMurphyasworstenemy:scannedimages,evenifinapdfwrapper(png,jpg,pdf);digitaldatabehindcomplexsearchengines.
Andifwehavethebestdataever,butunderclosedlicense?
Well-formeddatasets
Numbersarenumbers,stringsarestringsandnotnumbers,datetimemustalwayshaveasingleformat(ie.yyyy/mm/dd),localizationisimportant,nogendervaluesinnames'columnorsimilarmixings,everyelementsshouldbenamedwithaUniqueIdentifier(ID).
Datatypescomputerunderstands:integers(withsign,zeroincluded),floatingnumbers(withsign),datetime,charactersandstring(casesensitive),nullvalue(thestrangecaseofavaluethatstates"I'mnotavalue").
Andsimplecomparisonsarestrictlyequalities,alsoinstrings!
Aggregation,average,normalization,relativedifference,distribution,...
Asinglerule:correlationdoesnotimplycausation!Spuriouscorrelations:Correlated:
http://www.tylervigen.com/http://www.correlated.org/
Ataglance
Withgreatpowercomesgreatresponsibility
Thebasicideaisquitesimple:youhavequantitiesexpressedinnumbersandgeometricobjectsdefinedbydimensions(ie.radiusinacircle),soyoujusthavetodecidehowconnectyourquantitiestovisualdimensions.
Thereareseveral(un)commonchartsandendlesscombinations:scatterplots,lines,bars,areas,pies,donuts,bubblecharts,treemaps,wordclouds,alluvionaldiagrams,dendrograms,networks,streamgraphs,gauges,chorddiagrams,motioncharts,parallelcoordinates,sankeydiagrams,maps,choropleth,...
On thereisanendlesslistofexamples!d3js.orggallery
Buildingasimpledatasetoralargeandcomplexdatabasefocusedonatopicofpublicinterestleadstoavaluableproduct:thedatabaseitself,intendedasacollectionof(linked)dataplusmetadata.
Canapublicfrontendtosuchdatabase,designedforcitizens,journalists,stakeholders,beconsideredajournalisticoutcome?Ifjournalismisapublicgood,itcanbeaservice,notonlyaproduct...
Scraping"Copy&Paste"combo
forChromebrowserGoogleSpreadsheetfunction
forsimplepdfsPython(orotherlanguages)scriptsandlibraries
CleaningFiltersand"Find&Replace"toolsinspreadsheets
AnalysisPivottablesandsimplechartsinspreadsheetsDedicatedsoftwares(ie.open-source or )
Viz, , , , ,
, , , , , ,...
DataMinerIMPORTXML()Tabula
OpenRefine
QtiPlot QGIS
Datawrapper RAW GoogleFusionTables Tableau CartoDBinfogr.am easel.ly Timelinejs Timemapper StoryMap d3js
TinaCasagrand," ",TheOpenNotebook(2014)PaulBradshaw," ",Leanpub(2014)JohnMair,RichardLanceKeeble," ",abramis(2014)PaulBradshaw," "ClaireMiller," ",Leanpub(2013)NathanYau," ",Wiley(2013)SimonRogers," ",Faber&Faber(2013)JonathanGray," ",O'Reilly(2012)NathanYau," ",Wiley(2011)
Datajournalismforsciencejournalists
ScrapingforJournalistsDataJournalism
DataJournalismHeistGettingStartedwithDataJournalismDataPoints
FactsareSacredTheDataJournalismHandbook
VisualizeThis
Alessio"jenkin"[email protected]
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www.dataninja.itschool.dataninja.it
dataninja.it/newsletter
school.dataninja.it/qa
sciencewritersinitaly.wordpress.com
Hacking+Marathon=Hackathon
ESPAD(Europeanstudentsanddrugs): http://www.espad.org/en/
RASFF(EUfoodsafety): http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/rapidalert/
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/rapidalert/
TheRapidAlertSystemforFoodandFeed(RASFF)wasputinplacetoprovidefoodandfeedcontrolauthoritieswithaneffectivetooltoexchangeinformationaboutmeasurestakenrespondingtoseriousrisksdetectedinrelationtofoodorfeed.ThisexchangeofinformationhelpsMemberStatestoactmorerapidlyandinacoordinatedmannerinresponsetoahealththreatcausedbyfoodorfeed.
dtnj.it/rasff2013
http://www.espad.org/en/
Thisisthereportfromthefifthdata-collectionwaveoftheEuropeanSchoolSurveyProjectonAlcoholandOtherDrugs(ESPAD).Itisbasedondatafrommorethan100,000Europeanstudents.Overtheyearsabout500,000EuropeanstudentshaveansweredtheESPADquestionnaire.Atotalof36countriesandregionshavecontributeddatatothe2011ESPADDatabase.Drugslistincludescigarettes,alcohol,cannabis,otherillecitdrugs,tranquillantsandsedativeswithoutprescriptions.
dtnj.it/espad2011