One of the biggest issues that comes with visualizing election forecasts is how to incorporate uncertainty in a way that is understandable to readers. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from August 10 to 16 finds FiveThirtyEight explaining its election forecast design process and considerations. Elsewhere, The New York Times Magazine has been digging into the collapse of the fashion industry, and the Hong Kong Free Press is teaming up with the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of The University of Hong Kong to expand its protest research archive.
Designing Election Forecast Models
How can journalists present an election forecast that communicates not only what is known, but also the uncertainties, and what might change in the future? Here, New York-based data and news analysis site FiveThirtyEight gives us a peek into the thought process and considerations for planning its election forecast project for the 2020 US presidential race.
Super interesting peek behind the curtains of the design process for the @FiveThirtyEight forecast, including this beautiful monstrosity of a chart. https://t.co/90n41amXTy by @wiederkehra. pic.twitter.com/UGNKYT9pim
— David Bauer (@davidbauer) August 13, 2020
The Rise of Sweatpants
The fashion industry was already unraveling before the pandemic. What happens now that no one has a reason to dress up? In April, clothing sales fell 79% in the US while purchases of sweatpants were up 80%. Although not quite a data story, The New York Times Magazine’s article about the long-anticipated collapse of the fashion industry has an interesting visual presentation. It uses a pattern-making graph paper as a background and is peppered with fashion cut-outs.
Last week, I started thinking “there’s probably a good pandemic story about sweatpants out there.” This is entirely different than what I figured it would be, and extremely good. https://t.co/4V7lRP2Kxq
— Amanda Mull (@amandamull) August 7, 2020
Hong Kong Protest Research Archive
The Hong Kong Free Press has linked up with the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre to provide support in updating and expanding its protest research archive. The database includes info on protest arrests, criminal charges and injuries, a timeline of demonstrations against the now-scrapped extradition bill, and a map of tear gas deployments, among other things.
1/4 HKFP is providing support to @JMSCHKU to update and expand its incredibly detailed #HongKong protest research archive.
Coupled with @Hongkongfp's archives, this is the most comprehensive English repository of data on the 2019-2020 demos & unrest. pic.twitter.com/coiMG9sy2z
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) August 12, 2020
Data Scarcity Skews Research
Close to 9 in 10 academic articles published about social networks focus on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. Researchers say this is probably due to the reluctance of other online platforms to provide useful data, so researchers resort to the path of least resistance: studying the platforms that are more accommodating.
As part of our #LeftOnRead campaign, several researchers testified to the reluctance of online platforms to provide useful data. Many resorted to studying Twitter, which provides more data access than other platforms.
Story by @nicolaskbhttps://t.co/RjfAXgrQD8— AlgorithmWatch (@algorithmwatch) August 13, 2020
Germany’s Second Wave?
It seemed like the worst of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany was abating in June, but the July numbers have sparked concerns of a second wave. The national daily Der Tagesspiegel looked into the patterns and reasons why new infections are increasing again in some areas.
This excellent graphic shows how Coronavirus spread, contracted, and spread again when different levels of of social distancing were observed.https://t.co/MHcXVyRMd5
— Linda Mannheim (@LindaMannheim) August 15, 2020
7 Common Data Story Angles
British data journalist Paul Bradshaw analyzed 100 pieces of data journalism and identified seven core data story angles. Using these, he wrote a piece to help journalists identify story ideas when faced with a dataset.
In two posts this week I looked at the angles that journalists use in data stories – read them here https://t.co/DqZQ2SNd8f and at https://t.co/5kXVoYdWp9 #ddj
— Paul Bradshaw (@paulbradshaw) August 13, 2020
Data Journalism in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus
Although there aren’t a large number of data journalism programs in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the field is attracting more and more journalists. The International Journalists Network asked several data journalism trainers from Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia to share tips and resources for those looking to get started in data journalism.
👉Как медиа в Восточной Европе, Центральной Азии и на Кавказе используют данные в работе: https://t.co/7H0XjUMx5D
👉Международная команда журналистов Orb Media проводит масштабные исследования: экология, медицина, на очереди COVID-19. Как они это делают: https://t.co/JXnChttW2B pic.twitter.com/EwlKfqZ19V— ijnet_russian (@IJNet_Russian) August 2, 2020
Where Water Is Scarce
In Germany, climate change is heating up the soil, and water is becoming scarce as drought rages in parts of the country. The national daily Der Tagesspiegel looked into who is to blame and what measures can be taken to alleviate the problem.
Die Böden trocknen aus. Wo in Deutschland jetzt das Wasser knapp ist – und was Sie tun können. Inklusive Zeitverlauf der Bodentrockenheit im Verlauf der letzten Monate. #ddj #Hitzewelle https://t.co/22ZpF3pric pic.twitter.com/xq37P3pjco
— Hendrik Lehmann (@plateauton) August 13, 2020
Data Sunday (Portuguese)
Registrations are now open for Data Sunday, a program organized by ABRAJI, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism, as part of its 15th International Congress of Investigative Journalism. The event, on 13 September, is dedicated exclusively to data journalism workshops (in Portuguese), including sessions on the programming languages R, Python, and SQL. Registration is free and the event will be held online.
@abraji abre inscrições para 2º Domingo de Dados https://t.co/Dw96INB9gw #dados #jornalismo
— Haroldo Barbosa (@Haroldob) August 13, 2020
Brazil Data Journalism Award
The Cláudio Weber Abramo Data Journalism Award is welcoming submissions. The award recognizes professionals and students who work with data in media investigations that affect Brazilian society. There are four categories available: data-driven research, visualization, innovation in data journalism, and open data. The winner of each category will win R$2,500.00 (US$460). Submit your work here before October 1, 2020.
Inscrições abertas para a segunda edição do Prêmio Cláudio Weber Abramo de Jornalismo de Dados 🥇 pic.twitter.com/eBpfsYT7xQ
— Transparência Brasil (@trbrasil) August 12, 2020
Thanks again to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them. The Top Ten #ddj list is curated weekly.
Eunice Au is GIJN’s program coordinator. Previously, she was a Malaysia correspondent for Singapore’s The Straits Times, and a journalist at the New Straits Times. She has also written for The Sun, Malaysian Today, and Madam Chair.
For a look at NodeXL’s mapping on #ddj and data journalism on Twitter, check out this map.
