Data Journalism Top 10: Animating COVID Masks, Mapping US Campaign Cash, Homeless Arrests, Berlin Protests

Research shows that masks are an essential defense against the coronavirus. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 26 to November 1 finds The New York Times using animation and augmented reality to show just how masks work to filter and trap air particles that may carry the virus. This edition also includes several pieces on the United States presidential election: FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver talks to Vox about polling errors and uncertainties, freelance journalist Betsy Mason explains common shortcomings of US election maps, and NYT analyzed more than 25 million donations to Trump and Biden’s presidential campaigns.

GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Weird Maps, ‘Out of Control’ Airbnb, Augmented Reality Graphics, Russian Doctors, Brazilian Data

What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from February 17 to 23 finds geographer Tim Wallace collecting some amusingly unusual maps, The Guardian analyzing the effect of Airbnb’s prevalence on home ownership in Great Britain, the Data Visualization Society evaluating the successes and shortcomings of its first year, and former Ogilvy & Mather chief creative officer Tham Khai Meng sharing how a Japanese newspaper utilized augmented reality to animate graphics.

GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Luanda Leaks, A Disappeared Lake, Animated Graphics, Data Mapping, NICAR

What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from January 13 to 19 finds the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists exposing how Africa’s richest woman really made her fortune, The Washington Post using satellite imagery to show the disappearance of an entire lake in the Philippines, El País sharing the behind-the-scenes process of their work, and Mike Reilley curating a mega list of useful data journalism tools.

Blending Animation and Investigative Reporting

The Center for Investigative Reporting embarked on a new experiment last year: piloting an Animated Investigations collaborative course with the California College of the Arts. The course, which is intended for three semesters and a malleable work in progress, first taught students to animate existing Reveal investigations. However, it slowly transformed into a course where students identified their own underreported stories to animate.

GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Useful Chatbots, Less-Is-More Tables and Data Mapping Billions of Birds

What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from Sept 17 to 23 finds numerous data to map, from @NatGeo’s migration of billions of birds to @morgenpost’s Berlin schools and @A24COM’s internet access in Argentina. There’s also @dhanalytics’ tips on improving data tables and @mcrosasb on two useful chatbots.

GIJN Members Think Out of The Box

As GIJN has grown to 145-strong member organizations, we’re finding a wealth of unique methods they’re using to increase revenue, expand outreach, and support investigative work. Here are a few out-of-the-box ideas and programs implemented by GIJN members that are worth a second look.