Tag: Data

Posting government data

We live in a time when the personal is no longer private, and that doesn’t just apply to Facebook and Twitter feeds. Government databases that journalists use in their stories include a ton of personal information, too. But just because…

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Visualizing survey results

Surveys often lead to fascinating stories, but the data behind them can be hard to convey in an interesting way. The recent Pew Forum report on religion in American life is a classic example. The survey found that more than…

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Data mapping made easy

Maps are a great way to make data come to life but if you don’t have the right information in the right form, creating a map can be a pain. The good news is that there are easy-to-use online tools…

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Mapping the recession

Maps can show the scope of a story in a way that words and pictures alone cannot. The New York Times has produced a simple map that shows the impact of unemployment across the country, county-by-county. Roll-over boxes show how…

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The Web changes crime & coverage

Crime reporting is a staple of local news, so it’s important for journalists to provide context for their stories. At the 4th Annual Guggenheim Conference on Crime in Society, dozens of criminal justice reporters, criminologists and representatives of law enforcement…

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Inaugural multimedia

The Washington Post is already up with a very cool interactive map and timeline of President Obama’s inauguration. TimeSpace lets users “experience the events of Inauguration Day through photos, video and text from specific locations.” Students from the University of…

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Data for digging deeper

The Los Angeles Times has quietly built a huge online resource that gives users the opportunity to explore information on their own.  The data desk holds the results of 38 projects and more than 730,000 records: databases, lists, maps and…

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Tornado damage map

After a tornado wiped out a third of a nearby town on Memorial Day, the Des Moines Register created an interactive map on its Web site that lets users “see the breathtaking scope of the disaster house-by-house, with photos and…

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Using FOI on the FBI

Al’s Morning Meeting just featured a “how-to” for requesting FBI files on the famous and not-so-famous. WTTG-TV reporter Tisha Thompson is working on a series of reports involving the files and she shares what she’s learned so far. If you…

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