Presentation given at FJUM data journalism conference in Vienna 14 June 2012.

1. How to produce
effective data
journalism
Bella Hurrell, editor,
BBC News Specials team
bbc.co.uk/newsgraphics
@BBCNewsGraphics

2. bbc.co.uk/newsgraphics

3. Data and journalism
Data journalism roughly divides into three broad types that often overlap:
1. Traditional investigative data journalism, often called CAR - finding stories in the
data – with or without visualisations
2. Using the data to tell a story or explain a complex problem – this will involve
graphics or ‘visualisations’
3. Providing a service or a tool that tells the reader something personally relevant -
school score cards / tables or simple financial tools and calculators

4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11333472

5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10648909

6. http://bit.ly/vubzYr

7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15975720

10. data journalism tips
• It is the stories in the numbers that are interesting NOT the numbers by
themselves
• Give your data a human face if you can with case studies or by making it
personally relevant
• Investigative journalism can take a long time – Keep focused and work with
experts for the best outcome: investigative / data journalists, statisticians,
developers, designers
• Don’t waste time fishing – have insights first – or get the user to help
• Clean your data and triple check it – there are ALWAYS errors
• Plan publication and partner with a range of outlets for maximum coverage
• Build sharing in if appropriate to help boost reach
• Always have a page where you explain your methodology
• Be prepared to respond to critics and staff to cover corrections and feedback

11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696

12. http://nyti.ms/1ndlhL

13. data visualisation tips
• Help your readers to understand something complex, don’t just make data
art
• Keep your user in mind all the time. Remember you are not a normal user
so your judgement is not the best yardstick
• Always test your designs with users and iterate on the feedback
• Be aware some people hate graphs. You will never win them over
• Circles can be perceived as more ‘friendly’
• Keep the UX simple and intuitive. Avoid too many choices as can lead to
user anxiety
• Sequential ‘NEXT’ options will often get more clicks than ‘EXPLORE’
• Consider audio commentary or using video production tools like after
effects to give an overview

14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17442946

15. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

16. Data tools or apps
• Provide information that users will find personally relevant and useful
• If appropriate allow users to share a key fact about themselves to boost
reach and make it feel more personal
• A global dataset will be relevant to far more users and will get more
shares

17. Tools
• Excel, Google Docs and fusion tables.
• Sometimes MySQL and Access databases and Solr for interrogating larger
data sets and used
• RDF and SPARQL to begin looking at ways in which we can model events
using linked data.
• Developers will use their programming language of choice, whether that’s
ActionScript, Python or Perl, to match, parse or generally pick apart a
dataset we might be working on.
• Perl is used for some of the publishing.
• We use Google and Bing Maps and Google Earth along with Esri’s ArcMAP
for exploring and visualising geographical data.
• High charts javascript library for some data vis
• Adobe After Effects – motion graphics software