Small Data Journalism

I had always wanted to create a clearinghouse of data journalism resources, and so my data journalism class was a good opportunity for it. The Small Data Journalism website also provided a convenient place for me to distribute class assignments and information, rather than manage the tangle of email chains and the somewhat clunky university board system.

I enjoyed teaching the class, though I underestimated the time it takes to even teach basic data concepts, nevermind the journalism. I had already given up on teaching any programming, but even focusing strictly on how data is structured and the ways it can be aggregated and summarized was more than enough. Most of the class time was spent on how to organize and publish data using spreadsheets and Google Fusion Tables, but students seemed happy to get the practical and thorough experience.

My main goal for the class was that students get practical experience and familiarity with data, so that they recognize the many opportunities to examine data, and that would be incentive enough to experiment and further learn the tools and techniques.

Some highlights from the site:

• A suggested readings list containing some of my favorite papers and articles on a broad array of data-related issues.
• Probably the most thorough and basic guide yet written about using Google Fusion Tables to mash and map data.
• A short guide to publishing a static website on Amazon S3. We have a wide range of hosted platforms for web publishing, but I wanted my students to see what it was like to publish a page from scratch (sans setting up their own Apache server). An S3-like deployment is relatively easy and provides ample flexibility and speed. In fact, smalldatajournalism.com is hosted on S3.
• An introduction to the “five disciplines of data journalism.” Not enough is done to distinguish the complex fields that data journalism encompasses, making the field seem too monolithic.