5 ms·

The Journalist-Engineer

24 points by sebg 11y ago

Zikes 11y ago
It's pretty incredible the impact Mike Bostock has had on journalism. Just five years ago print media was dying and traditional publications were in a panic, but once they embraced the web they've created articles more engaging and interactive than ever before.
- danielsf 11y ago
  Author of the article here – totally agree. D3 has totally changed the game.
anc84 11y ago
This is basically an ad for the author's service. It also has several grandiose statements that do not stand the test of scrutiny.
- artifaxx 11y ago
  It was well mixed in with references and analysis of some pretty amazing visualizations though. I agree it could have been more grounded, but I still found it a pretty great article. Which statements do you view as too grandiose?
  - danielsf 11y ago
    author here...I don't have any services. what's so ad-driven about it? It was meant to be a statement about why I'm so passionate about the space right now :)
    - artifaxx 11y ago
      Cool! Out of curiosity, have you come up with ways to monetize this long term? I ask this because I hope there is a way to support and still see this type of content for years to come.
      - danielsf 11y ago
        No monetization plan. I'm burning through savings :)
        artifaxx 11y ago
        I admire that kind of passion for doing something. Not sure burning through savings belongs next to a smiley though :p
theg2 11y ago
As a developer in a newsroom who had no intention of ending up here, it is amazing to see the transition in my industry and just how many companies are eager to hire developers who understand journalism or at least are willing to partner with reporters and editors. I can't say it's what I expected to be doing but news organizations are in a period of massive change and it's an interesting space to be in.
- artifaxx 11y ago
  Have you worked on visualizations such as those in the article, or do you have a different position? I am very interested in this industry, but I haven't met anyone with experience there yet.
  - widgetic 11y ago
    We did, but on a much smaller scale: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value_561294efe4b0768127029355 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technology_560c13e2e4b07681270024d9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technolo... Useful to tell better stories and retain readers, these widgets are also a great engagement boost. :-)
    - artifaxx 11y ago
      Yeah, I can definitely see how these widgets and visualizations make an article significantly more engaging. I am hoping to learn more so I can have some visualizations to present of data for my startup. Since we are improving people's productivity, it would provide significant value to better engage users in their data.
  - theg2 11y ago
    I've worked on numerous elections, data projects, and interactives over the past few years. They're a great asset but the narrative behind them is just as important. I've had reporters say "I found some data, can we do something with it" and it's not nearly as useful as "I'm writing a story about X, how can we use this data to visualize Y to illustrate X?". It's amazing just how rare that understanding can be from traditional media folks.
barkingcat 11y ago
What I find a bit jarring is the lack of journalistic intent in the verification of data. I know that all data visualisations start at the source - the data. The data comes from somewhere, and I'd really like to see data-engineer-journalists be a bit more skeptical about where that data comes from and how it was collected / sampled / modified before going into visualisations. I think that's the one part of the journalist's toolkit that hasn't made its way into the coding side yet - the ability to step back and say do we trust this data? How do we verify? Can we talk to the people who collected this? If it's collected by a government agency, under who's funding was this done? How do we fact check a graph that composes of an aggregate of population statistics, for example? In old school narrative journalism, someone (usually an intern) calls up all the sources, looks into the government departments who gives the stats, tries to find third parties from universities or other non-related parties to cross reference ideas, statements, facts. How do we do that in a data driven world? It's a good angle and someone ought look into it. Potential for more data-driven stories.
- danielsf 11y ago
  Author of the Medium post here... This point comes up a lot...there's a tension in making the data say something interesting that will get traffic/spread, which might undermine the rigor that goes into real data-analysis/data science/academic work. IMO, as long as we disclose the source and preface the biases/problems, I'm ok with data that isn't perfect (after all, there's no such thing as a perfect data set). The lyrical analysis that I did for rappers would never work in academia...the data set wasn't strong enough. But, it was good enough for the Internet as a side-project, and I think that most readers understood the integrity issues with the data (which I also highlighted in the narrative). But yea, really good points about journalistic standards for coders who write journalism-esque content.
danielsf 11y ago
author here, if anyone has q's
- BillSaysThis 11y ago
  Have you open sourced any tools or written up your process? I looked at your Trello board and none of the cards (from a random sample) had any detail beyond the title or status...
  - danielsf 11y ago
    Yea I didn't think anyone would read this Medium post and was lazy about the Trello board. Filling it out now :)
- yeshihello 11y ago
  Hey, I'm a fan of your work and glad you're continuing to make stuff. Just have to say, though, it seems this entire post is based on your assumptions about how newsrooms handle graphics and is not based on any research or first-hand newsroom experience. First of all, none of the projects you mention are "99% code." They all take a ton of reporting and editorial decision-making, and they all require a deep understanding of the topics they cover. Given the full breadth of any given interactive feature, it's really more like ~10% code. Also: "News organizations had to accept that code-driven content wouldn’t have a viable print-version. The NY Times launched a data-led blog, The Upshot, to address this tension." Really? That's why they launched the Upshot? Not to leverage their already-existing graphics desk to compete with 538 after Nate Silver left the NYT? Also, most interactive graphics you see on the NYT site also appear in print in some form. Also: "Michael Bloomberg is subsidizing all of Bloomberg Business’s engineers in the Editorial Department. No one else is even close to making a head-count commitment." I'm not actually sure what you're trying to say here. Bloomberg's graphics desk, while very good, is actually relatively small. And they do not come from some engineering corner of the company; they're people who are experts in creating editorial graphics and interactives, and they work in the newsroom. I'm glad you're excited about the work you cited in your post. I am too! It just seems you're missing a lot of context here.

24 points by sebg 11y ago

Zikes 11y ago

It's pretty incredible the impact Mike Bostock has had on journalism. Just five years ago print media was dying and traditional publications were in a panic, but once they embraced the web they've created articles more engaging and interactive than ever before.

danielsf 11y ago
Author of the article here – totally agree. D3 has totally changed the game.

anc84 11y ago

This is basically an ad for the author's service. It also has several grandiose statements that do not stand the test of scrutiny.

artifaxx 11y ago
It was well mixed in with references and analysis of some pretty amazing visualizations though. I agree it could have been more grounded, but I still found it a pretty great article. Which statements do you view as too grandiose?
- danielsf 11y ago
  author here...I don't have any services. what's so ad-driven about it? It was meant to be a statement about why I'm so passionate about the space right now :)
  - artifaxx 11y ago
    Cool! Out of curiosity, have you come up with ways to monetize this long term? I ask this because I hope there is a way to support and still see this type of content for years to come.
    - danielsf 11y ago
      No monetization plan. I'm burning through savings :)
      - artifaxx 11y ago
        I admire that kind of passion for doing something. Not sure burning through savings belongs next to a smiley though :p

theg2 11y ago

As a developer in a newsroom who had no intention of ending up here, it is amazing to see the transition in my industry and just how many companies are eager to hire developers who understand journalism or at least are willing to partner with reporters and editors. I can't say it's what I expected to be doing but news organizations are in a period of massive change and it's an interesting space to be in.

artifaxx 11y ago
Have you worked on visualizations such as those in the article, or do you have a different position? I am very interested in this industry, but I haven't met anyone with experience there yet.
- widgetic 11y ago
  We did, but on a much smaller scale: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value_561294efe4b0768127029355 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technology_560c13e2e4b07681270024d9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technolo... Useful to tell better stories and retain readers, these widgets are also a great engagement boost. :-)
  - artifaxx 11y ago
    Yeah, I can definitely see how these widgets and visualizations make an article significantly more engaging. I am hoping to learn more so I can have some visualizations to present of data for my startup. Since we are improving people's productivity, it would provide significant value to better engage users in their data.
- theg2 11y ago
  I've worked on numerous elections, data projects, and interactives over the past few years. They're a great asset but the narrative behind them is just as important. I've had reporters say "I found some data, can we do something with it" and it's not nearly as useful as "I'm writing a story about X, how can we use this data to visualize Y to illustrate X?". It's amazing just how rare that understanding can be from traditional media folks.

barkingcat 11y ago

What I find a bit jarring is the lack of journalistic intent in the verification of data. I know that all data visualisations start at the source - the data. The data comes from somewhere, and I'd really like to see data-engineer-journalists be a bit more skeptical about where that data comes from and how it was collected / sampled / modified before going into visualisations. I think that's the one part of the journalist's toolkit that hasn't made its way into the coding side yet - the ability to step back and say do we trust this data? How do we verify? Can we talk to the people who collected this? If it's collected by a government agency, under who's funding was this done? How do we fact check a graph that composes of an aggregate of population statistics, for example? In old school narrative journalism, someone (usually an intern) calls up all the sources, looks into the government departments who gives the stats, tries to find third parties from universities or other non-related parties to cross reference ideas, statements, facts. How do we do that in a data driven world? It's a good angle and someone ought look into it. Potential for more data-driven stories.

danielsf 11y ago
Author of the Medium post here... This point comes up a lot...there's a tension in making the data say something interesting that will get traffic/spread, which might undermine the rigor that goes into real data-analysis/data science/academic work. IMO, as long as we disclose the source and preface the biases/problems, I'm ok with data that isn't perfect (after all, there's no such thing as a perfect data set). The lyrical analysis that I did for rappers would never work in academia...the data set wasn't strong enough. But, it was good enough for the Internet as a side-project, and I think that most readers understood the integrity issues with the data (which I also highlighted in the narrative). But yea, really good points about journalistic standards for coders who write journalism-esque content.

danielsf 11y ago

author here, if anyone has q's

BillSaysThis 11y ago
Have you open sourced any tools or written up your process? I looked at your Trello board and none of the cards (from a random sample) had any detail beyond the title or status...
- danielsf 11y ago
  Yea I didn't think anyone would read this Medium post and was lazy about the Trello board. Filling it out now :)
yeshihello 11y ago
Hey, I'm a fan of your work and glad you're continuing to make stuff. Just have to say, though, it seems this entire post is based on your assumptions about how newsrooms handle graphics and is not based on any research or first-hand newsroom experience. First of all, none of the projects you mention are "99% code." They all take a ton of reporting and editorial decision-making, and they all require a deep understanding of the topics they cover. Given the full breadth of any given interactive feature, it's really more like ~10% code. Also: "News organizations had to accept that code-driven content wouldn’t have a viable print-version. The NY Times launched a data-led blog, The Upshot, to address this tension." Really? That's why they launched the Upshot? Not to leverage their already-existing graphics desk to compete with 538 after Nate Silver left the NYT? Also, most interactive graphics you see on the NYT site also appear in print in some form. Also: "Michael Bloomberg is subsidizing all of Bloomberg Business’s engineers in the Editorial Department. No one else is even close to making a head-count commitment." I'm not actually sure what you're trying to say here. Bloomberg's graphics desk, while very good, is actually relatively small. And they do not come from some engineering corner of the company; they're people who are experts in creating editorial graphics and interactives, and they work in the newsroom. I'm glad you're excited about the work you cited in your post. I am too! It just seems you're missing a lot of context here.