1. Overview of Teaching Data and Journalism
Brant Houston
Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting
University of Illinois

2. Why we use data in journalism
To go beyond the anecdotal
To find patterns and trends
To find outliers
To present our stories in more comprehensible, compelling and credible ways

3. Training sequence for professionals
Preparation
Training
Evaluation
Follow-up

4. Training sequence for students
Preparation
The Syllabus
Instruction
Evaluation

5. Preparation Keep it simple
Short survey of students: Skills, experience, and expectations
Assess technical needs and challenges
Select software based on location
Create realistic syllabus and examples
Select relevant data
Keep it simple

6. Training Early room set-up: Testing technology and room layout
Introductions and start slowly
Show first, then instruct
Try a test exercise
Keep it simple

7. Training Overall goals: For individual or organization or both?
Three levels? Basic user, power user, data cruncher?
Breaks
Exercises and quizzes

8. Preparation for Professionals
Share proposed program with organizers
Share program with participants
Ask participants to do some reading (Don’t expect all of them to do it.)
Redundancy of materials: Online, sticks, and DVDs
Newsroom culture?
Keep it simple

9. Training
Strategies for dealing with different skill levels, software and hardware
Repetition and trial and errors
Realizing journalists’ and students’ worries
Dealing with fear of data and math
Sequence: From basic to complex

10. Training Basic test dataset – Three columns and five rows, one screen.
Data management before calculations – filter, sort and pivot tables
The idea of analysis of subsets within subsets – nesting dolls
Applied calculations – Median is a lie detector

11. Training Summarize during classes Create confidence
Celebrate achievement
Buddy system but not enablers
Co-trainers and coaches and teaching assistants
Quick early victories

12. Training
Teaching three things: Motor skills, new scenery, and concepts
It’s like going on a hike (Different paces, but periodically stopping and getting together)
Find and know your style (voice)
But borrow from the best
Teaching is discovery and many paths to palace of wisdom

13. Training Get them to teach you Fun Humor
Do your own learning every year
Tip sheets each day or a manual or a book?

14. Evaluation for Professional Training
Forms for students
Have them fill evaluation forms immediately
Clarify answers through one on one
Compile and analyze

15. Follow-up Emailing Form online groups
Re-send tip sheets and conference notifications
Keep track of their accomplishments
Use it or lose it

16. Sequence Spreadsheets and database managers (building datasets too)
Statistical software
Visualization of data through charts, maps timelines, social network analysis
Tools and software for scraping and cleaning data
Unstructured data

17. What to remember…fundamentals remain
Credibility is at core of journalism
Integrity checks of data lead to credibility
Nearly all databases have flaws or are incomplete
Digital tools have limitations
Multi-sourcing is key
Investigations include the lab, interviews and field work
Adoption of new tools and methods does not always mean elimination of old