Welcome to class
| Class 1 | Jan. 28, 2017 |
Introduction to data journalism, visualization, and spreadsheets
Story
Presentations
Lab
Walkthroughs
- Sharing a Google Doc folder
- Introduction to spreadsheets in Google Sheets
- How to make pivot tables in Google Sheets
Data for lab
Homework
Read and listen
| Type | Where | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Story | D Magazine | The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever |
| Podcast | This American Life | The Problem We All Live With |
| Story | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | A senior year mostly lost for a Normandy honor student |
| Reading | Data Journalism Handbook | What is Data Journalism? |
Things we’ll be discussing in the next class about each story and podcast
- Describe the structure
- List all the sources that went into telling the story
- Reverse engineer the questions or pitch that the reporter presented to his or her boss assuming they had done no reporting yet
- What did you find most compelling about the story?
- What’s the most complicated idea you took from the story?
Lab
Bring these spreadsheets into Google Sheets and create two pivot tables each. Filter however you want before hand.
What is a Codebook?
A codebook is a guide to a spreadsheet that explains in greater detail the data in a spreadsheet. Spreadsheet columns are limited by size (and they can’t include spaces or characters) so column names tend to be abbreviations. A codebook deciphers what those abbreviations mean. It would be impossible to come up to any conclusions after analyzing the second spreadsheet unless you also looked at what the columns meant.
Rename the sheets Class 1 homework A and Class 2 homework B and also create a Google Doc that points out two interesting observations per pivot table (That’s 2 x 2 x 2 = 8).
Name the Google Doc Class 1 homework observations.
Make sure the files are in the folder JRN-418 Homework that you’ve shared with me and email me to let me know when you’re done.