Data Journalism: Mapping the Future

by John Mair (Editor), Richard Keeble (Editor)

The idea of the journo-coder, programmer-journalist, hacker-journalist, journo-programmer (the terminology is undecided) is gaining ground as data journalism develops both in Britain and internationally. Programmers are coming into newsrooms, journalists are venturing further into programming and there is some blurring where the two meet. Data journalism (DJ) is certainly becoming the Big Buzz Story in the media but so far little has been written about it. This new, jargon-free text, edited by John Mair and Richard Lance Keeble (with Teodora Beleaga and Paul Bradshaw), provides an original and thought-provoking insight into DJ. The first section, with contributions from Teodora Beleaga and Simon Rogers. explores various definitions of DJ; in another, experts, such as Paul Bradshaw, Nicola Hughes, Daniel Ionescu and Pupul Chatterjee provide some useful tips on developing DJ skills. Tom Felle interviews a group of international data journalists and finds they all argue their work can play a crucial democratic role in holding the powerful to account Andy Dickinson wonders if the growing field of sensor journalism offers an insight into what comes next for DJ Jacqui Taylor, Bella Hurrell and John Walton focus on data visualisations AEndrew Rininsland argues that anyone "willing to learn D3 will find they are given an unparalleled ability to create visualisations that bring data alive" Arthur Lashmar shows how an international consortium of journalists used DJ skills to expose the use of offshore tax havens by the world's rich and famous Other chapters are provided by Chris Frost, Liz Hannaford, Jonathan Hewett, Gabriel Keeble-Gagnere, Damian Radcliffe, Yaneng Feng, Qian Li and John Burn-Murdoch."

Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2014

Reviews

[Megomars · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provides a well rounded guide of the benefits of introducing data journalism in the newsroom. There are plenty of practical case-studies of how news organizations, mostly in the UK, have used data-driven reporting as part of the natural evolution of journalism. These case-studies provide a reasonable amount of knowledge of the inner workings of reporting with data. Sections two and three quite casually capture the day in the life of a data journalist and provide some useful links and background reading for more depth.

Overall, the book is interesting but isn't able to peek into the future of the profession in the way I was hoping it would. Four out of Five stars.