Download Raquel-Computational Journalism@Público.pptx

Raquel Albuquerque
CIMJ and INESC-ID
REACTION
Computational Journalism
@Público
1. REACTION task 7: Computational Newsroom
2. Journalistic approaches to social media:
Twitteuro and Sentibubbles
3. Data exploration, analysis and visualization:
four stories step by step
4. The effects of computation in journalism
REACTION
Presentation
REACTION
REACTION Task 7
Computational Newsroom
Why? Journalistic excellence today requires
advanced data mining and exploration in order to
present new, original and unique stories
•  Readers are no longer a mass
•  Social networks and blogs have emerged
•  Digitally stored documents and databases are
now available
•  More sophisticated and easy-to-use software
and tools have been developed
REACTION
Computational Newsroom
How? Evaluating the developed computational
journalism methodology in a production setting,
to provide a critical analysis of practical impact on
newsroom quality and efficiency
Procedure? Production of stories with different
natures and levels of investigation, based on data
collection and analysis, in two different ways:
- with tools developed by REACTION
- with free and open source tools available on
the Internet
REACTION
Computational Newsroom
Two kinds of results:
•  Articles dependent on a computational
approach to data (ex. Twitteuro or Sentibubbles)
•  Stories driven by the use and exploration of
data (ex. PhDs in Portugal)
“What is involved in a computational approach to
journalism is how stories can be discovered,
presented, aggregated, monetized and archived.”
Sarah Cohen, James Hamilton
and Fred Turner (2010)
REACTION
Computational Newsroom
REACTION
Journalistic approaches
to social media
TWITTEURO. Collection of tweets to monitor in
real-time the popularity and trends of the Euro
2012 teams and players during the matches
•  Aimed at analysing the sentiment of tweets
•  Journalistic approach defined in advance:
short articles written after each Portuguese match
REACTION
Journalistic approaches
to social media
SENTIBUBBLES. Collection of Facebook
comments with sentiment analysis and design of a
word cloud with the 50 most repeated words.
•  Word cloud embedded in the article’s page
•  Journalistic approach: in-depth and enlarged
story on the conclusions of the analysis and on
the relevance of social media for Portuguese
REACTION
Journalistic approaches
to social media
•  While other media were covering the total
numbers of comments, this was an exclusive
story
•  This case illustrated the difference between
data, information and informing knowledge
(added-value process by Robert S. Taylor, 1982)
•  Time was fundamental. Deadlines may block the
success of journalistic approaches to social media
content
REACTION
Why did this approach work better?
REACTION
Data exploration, analysis and
visualization
Data compilation. Compilation of the first list
of PhDs in Portugal since 1917.
•  Open Refine was used to clean the database
•  Journalistic approach: analysis of the evolution
of PhDs with a multimedia coverage
(interactive data visualisation, stories in
video and text)
REACTION
Data exploration, analysis and
visualization
http://publico.pt/multimedia/infografia/evolucao-dosdoutoramentos Multimedia website with data visualization.
Special page with a long-form structure and an
interactive visualisation of data on the evolution of
wildfires in Portugal
•  Contents were presented in a dynamic and
interactive way
•  The page was launched in July 2013 and was
updated until October 2013
•  Database exploration led to an exclusive story
REACTION
Data exploration, analysis and
visualization
http://publico.pt/floresta-em-perigo http://publico.pt/floresta-em-perigo/doze-anos-deincendios Investigation. Exploration of data on the political
parties funding of local electoral campaigns
•  Planned seven months in advance (to be published
at the beginning of the 2013 local elections)
•  Data were organised with tools as Tabula, Unpdf,
Open Refine and Google Spreadsheets
•  An interactive visualisation provided the
navigation through 2,000 candidates funding
information
REACTION
Data exploration, analysis and
visualization
Results
•  There was flexibility to plan an infographics for
the printed version of Público
•  It was an unique, exclusive and original content
based on public data
•  It worked as an evidence of the potential of
computation in journalism
REACTION
Data exploration, analysis and
visualization
REACTION
The effects of computation in
journalism
There was an evolution at Público. Why?
•  Awareness and involvement of the newsroom
•  Approach to stories with a particular attention to
the use of data
•  Acquired skills were useful to improve
•  Recognition of the value added by these stories
•  Positive reactions from readers
•  Acknowledgment of the potential for new stories,
unblocking previous obstacles
REACTION
The effects of computation in
journalism
But there are obstacles:
•  The concept and its role in journalism is not
completely clear among journalists
•  There are different ‘levels of technology’ used by
journalists in their routines
•  A solid development of computational journalism
in a newsroom depends on the existence of
journalists dedicated to it
•  Time, aims and resources have to be evaluated
•  An open access to data is still a problem
REACTION
The effects of computation in
journalism