Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/category/data-journalism/page/14/)
The figures for Canada’s Jewish population dropped by half in five years. But nothing happened to this Jewish population. Rather, this is a perfect example of how careful we must be about data collection methods.
With just a spreadsheet, a journalist can let the software do the counting and calculating, allowing them to concentrate on the purpose and result of their inquiry. It also opens the door to understanding more advanced statistics, and the use or misuse of statistics by governments and businesses.
With less than a month until the start of the Olympic Games, host country Japan’s slow vaccination campaign is causing concern. Our NodeXL mapping from June 21 to 27 found a piece by The New York Times looking at Japan’s efforts to combat the pandemic in the run-up to a global sporting event. In this edition, we also feature a joint investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times into Chinese propaganda on the internet, a herd immunity calculator by German newspaper Zeit, and revelations from the Guardian about abusive posts on social media targeting English soccer players.
A sunken ship with a toxic cargo threatens to cause one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of Sri Lanka. Our NodeXL mapping from June 14 to 20 found a story by The Washington Post examining what caused the incident and evaluating the potential damage to marine wildlife. In this edition we also feature a piece by Al Jazeera evaluating 70 years of journeys made by refugees, an investigation into recyclable waste by Brazilian news outlet Metrópoles, and take a look at the winners of the 2021 Sigma Awards recognizing the best data journalism around the globe.
Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from June 7 to 13, which tracks the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter each week, focused in on this major investigation by ProPublica, which offers an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of US billionaires. In this edition, we also feature a detailed look at India’s faltering vaccination campaign, a data project exploring Argentina’s news deserts, and an investigation of The Gambia’s water paradox.
Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from May 31 to June 6, which tracks the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter each week, found a project by the Guardian explaining who profits from the mass extraction of the region’s natural resources. In this edition, we also feature an investigation by IStories into maternal and infant mortality in Russia, a look into the toxic threat caused by aging dams in the US by Undark Magazine, and an analysis of wildlife trade in Southeast Asia by GIJN member Oxpeckers.
For inmates in Canada, risk assessments can determine which type of prison they are sent to and their chances of successfully reentering society. But an investigation by The Globe and Mail revealed that these assessments are biased against Indigenous and Black inmates. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from May 24 to 30 also found an interactive project by The New York Times recreating the Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma destroyed in 1921, and data-driven reporting on the influence of big money in soccer, the cost of Italy’s vaccination campaign, and police violence during the recent protests in Colombia.
In this edition of Data Journalism Top 10, we look at the history of Eurovision, a Financial Times analysis of how much energy is needed to mine bitcoin, a piece on wildlife trafficking in Hong Kong by GIJN member Oxpeckers, and a piece looking at how American families spend their monthly budgets.
Data analysis and visualization expert Hassel Fallas explains how the visual presentation of facts provided much-needed understanding amid the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also shared some of her favorite examples of pandemic data visualization from around the world in 2020.
In the wake of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban. As the US prepares to withdraw its troops later this year, our NodeXL #ddj mapping found an interactive project by Al Jazeera showcasing the impact of a conflict that has directly claimed the lives of an estimated 241,000 people. In this edition, we also feature a story about the difficulties some Russian students have getting to school by IStories, an investigation into deaths related to gold mining holes by InfoCongo, and a visual vocabulary for data projects by the Financial Times.