For providing context for breaking news or developing enterprise stories off your beat, databases are your friend. Learn how to develop a data state of mind, find newsworthy data and begin to analyze data sets. Spot the enterprise stories in the numbers, whether your beat is breaking news, sports, health, business, education, local government or cops and courts. It is accompanied by two handouts: Bringing a data mindset to your reporting by Houston, and Pivot tables on Google Sheets by Dylan Tiger. Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois, where he oversees an online newsroom, CU-CitizenAccess.org. For more info on the News Leaders Association's NewsTrain, see https://www.newsleaders.org/newstrain.

1. Developing a data
mindset to improve
stories every day
Brant Houston
University of Illinois
houstonb@illinois.edu
@BrantHouston
With special thanks to Todd Wallack of WBUR

2. Why data?
• Context and comparisons
• Trends and patterns
• Tips
• Credibility

3. Get good jobs

4. Basic skills
• Finding and
downloading/importing
• Spreadsheets
• Database managers
• Charts and maps

5. Data journalism tools

6. What have YOU done with data?

7. Stories every newsroom can
do with spreadsheets
• Salaries, city budgets, and taxes
• Elections and campaign finance
• Crime: incidents, arrests,
prosecutions, jails
• Inspections, complaints, fines
• Roads, bridges and buildings

8. Goals for today
• Finding and
downloading/importing data
• Using spreadsheets

9. Spotlight and the spreadsheet

10. Our agenda today
How to:
•Find data
•Summarize data
•Sort and filter
•Calculate
•Pick a data story
and get started

11. Finding data
• Articles
• Data portals
• Independent
groups
• Forms
• FOIA requests
• Search
• Records-
retention skeds
• Build your own

12. Federal data portals
data.gov

13. State data portals
data.illinois.gov

14. Local data portals
data.urbanaillinois.us

15. Independent groups
• Watchdog groups
• Think tanks / research firms
• IRE/NICAR
• ProPublica

16. ProPublica data searches
projects.propublica.org/nonprofits

17. Forms

18. Freedom of information request

19. Freedom of information results
cu-citizenaccess.org/salary-and-compensation-guide

20. Freedom of information results
cu-citizenaccess.org/salary-and-compensation-guide

21. Basic search with filetype
Illinois nursing home prices .xls

22. Basic search with filetype + site
heroin overdose filetype:xls site:gov

23. Voila! Data!

24. google.com/advanced_search
“Illinois department of public health”
.gov
.xls

25. Illinois department of public health site:.gov filetype:xls

26. Use records-retention schedules
as a menu to request data

27. Building your own database
to identify serial killings

28. Building a prize-winning database
2015 Pulitzer for Public Service
Post & Courier in Charleston, S.C.
Database of 300 women killed in domestic abuse

29. 2016 Pulitzer
winner for
national
reporting
Building a prize-winning database

30. Tracking drinking violations
on a spreadsheet

31. Tracking drinking violations
on a spreadsheet

32. Let’s practice with data
• Sort and filter

33. Exercise 1 and 2: Sort and filter
bit.ly/BaseballPay2017
You can either use Google Sheets
OR
Download the file and use Excel
Note: Case matters with bit.ly links

34. Exercise 1: Sort
On your own:
Filter to find the highest-paid New York Yankee and
what he makes.
Answer: CC Sabathia, $25 million
bit.ly/BaseballPay2017

35. Make a copy or download
(For Google Sheets)
(For Excel)

36. Freeze top row

39. Exercise 2: Filter
On your own:
Sort from smallest to largest, and find the lowest
salary in baseball.
Answer: $535,000
bit.ly/BaseballPay2017

44. Let’s practice with data
PivotTable

45. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable
atf.gov/firearms/listing-federal-firearms-licensees

46. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable
atf.gov/firearms/listing-federal-firearms-licensees

47. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable

48. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable

49. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable

50. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable

51. Summarizing gun-dealer
licenses with a PivotTable

52. What can I quantify?
 Sentencing
 Crime logs
 Jail logs
 Sex offenders
 Police discipline
COPS and COURTS
What’s my question about:

53. What can I quantify?
EDUCATION
What’s my question about:
 Test scores
 Enrollment
 Repair requests
 Salaries
 Campus crime
 Teacher assignments

54. How to frame your story
Photo by Flickr user linearclassifier
a. What percentage of bridges are unsafe?
areunsafe?
b. I want to do a story on unsafe bridges.

55. Vols. 1+2 free at
bit.ly/datajbook
Where do I learn more?
▪IRE/NICAR training/tip sheets
▪Online classes/videos
▪Ask colleagues
▪Read a book
▪NICAR-L email list (Listserv)
▪Find data and practice
▪Handout: bit.ly/illinoisnewstrain

56. Brant Houston
houstonb@illinois.edu
(573) 529-3581
What’s your data story?
What’s your first step?
cu-citizenaccess.org