Lecture at University of California Berkeley, 20 April 2015.

1. Follow the Networks:
Open Data and Digital Methods
for Journalism
21st April 2015, UC Berkeley
Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg

2. Data Journalism Handbook: http://datajournalismhandbook.org/

3. Data Journalism MOOC: http://datajournalismcourse.net/

4. School of Data: http://schoolofdata.org/

5. 1. Open Data
2. Digital Methods
3. Networks

6. 1. Open Data

7. https://okfn.org/

8. What is open data?

9. The Open Definition (2005):
http://opendefinition.org

10. Open Government Data Principles (2007):
https://public.resource.org/8_principles.html

11. Legal and technical re-usability of
(government) information

12. What does this mean in practise?

13. Open data licenses / legal statements

14. UK Open Government Licence:
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

15. Machine readable formats

17. Data portals

18. Data.gov
http://data.gov

19. Data.gov.uk
http://data.gov.uk

20. data.gov.x

21. Data Catalogs
http://datacatalogs.org/

22. What kinds of data?

23. A selection of themes and topics from national
(UK and US) and local (Glasgow) open data portals

24. CCTV Camera Locations - Runnymede Borough Council
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/cctv-camera-locations

25. Organogram and staff pay data for DEFRA
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/staff-organograms-and-pay-defra/

26. CO2 emissions by different sub-groups in manufacturing sector, 2000 to 2008
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/co2-emissions-by-different-sub-groups-in-manufacturing-sector-2000-to-2008/

27. Animals frozen, including type and quantity
http://data.gov.uk/dataset/animals-frozen-including-type-and-quantity-pcc/

28. Who cares about open data?

29. From niche tech/legal circles to
international political stage.

30. Open Government Advocates in Sebastopol, California
(January 2009)
Government
data shall be considered
open if it is made public in a
way that complies with the
following principles…

31. President Obama’s Open Government Initiative
(January 2009)
My Administration is
committed to creating an
unprecedented level of
openness in Government.

32. Prime Minister David Cameron’s “Transparency Revolution”
(May 2010)
I want our government to be
one of the most open and
transparent in the world.

33. Open Government Partnership
(September 2011)
We embrace principles of
transparency and open
government with a view toward
achieving greater prosperity, well-
being, and human dignity in our own
countries and in an increasingly
interconnected world.

34. G8 Open Data Charter
(June 2013)
Open data sit at the heart
of a global movement to create
more accountable, efficient,
responsive, and effective governments
and businesses, and to spur
economic growth.

35. UN “Data Revolution”
(August 2014)
Data are the lifeblood of
decision-making and the raw
material for accountability.

36. Data for journalism?

37. Open Data
vs.
Freedom of
Information?

38. Why does open data matter?

39. Farm Subsidy: http://farmsubsidy.openspending.org/

40. Open Spending: http://openspending.org/

41. Engaging with open data initiatives.

42. For example, data about…
• Public finance
• Contracts
• Campaign finance
• Elections
• Companies
• Lobbying
• Pollution
• Environment
• Events and crises

43. Journalists can publish open data too.

44. InfoAmazonia: http://infoamazonia.org/

45. New forms of journalistic collaboration
around data?

46. Influence Mapping: http://influencemapping.org/

47. 2. Digital Methods

48. http://digitalmethods.net

49. Repurposing online devices and platforms
for social and political research.

50. Rogers, R. (2013) Digital Methods.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Winner of 2014 Outstanding Book Award
given by the International Communication Association.

51. Digital Methods Initiative - Tools.
http://tools.digitalmethods.net

52. “The Twitter Capture and Analysis Toolset
(DMI-TCAT) captures tweets and allows for
multiple analyses (hashtags, mentions, users,
search, ...).”

53. Borra, E. & Rieder, B. (2014) “Programmed method: developing a toolset for capturing and analyzing
tweets”. Aslib Journal of Information Management. Vol. 66 No. 3: 262-278.

54. TCAT: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolDmiTcat

55. TCAT: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolDmiTcat

56. “Netvizz is a tool that extracts data from
different sections of the Facebook platform
(personal profile, groups, pages) for research
purposes.”

57. Rieder, B. (2013). Studying Facebook via data extraction: the Netvizz application. In WebSci '13
Proceedings of the 5th Annual ACM Web Science Conference (pp. 346-355). New York: ACM.

58. Netvizz: https://tools.digitalmethods.net/netvizz/facebook/netvizz/

59. The Issue Crawler: “A software tool that
locates and visualizes networks on the web”

60. Issue Crawler: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolIssueCrawler

61. Issue Crawler: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolIssueCrawler

62. Issue Crawler: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolIssueCrawler

63. Issue Crawler: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolIssueCrawler

64. Issue Crawler: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolIssueCrawler

65. “Gephi is an interactive visualization and
exploration platform for all kinds of networks
and complex systems, dynamic and
hierarchical graphs.”

66. Gephi: http://gephi.org

67. Three examples…

68. Mapping dominant
topics and countries in
UN climate negotiations

69. – Leo Hickman, “Can carbon offsetting ever be truly green?”,
The Guardian, 3rd September 2008.
“In what seems like a flash, the climate-change
debate has lurched from talk of mitigation to
one of adaptation.”

70. The Atlantic (2014) “The UN's New Focus: Surviving, Not Stopping, Climate Change”.
Available at: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/the-uns-new-focus-surviving-not-
stopping-climate-change/359929/

71. “Adaptation turn”

72. Can the shift from mitigation to adaptation be
observed in the UNFCCC negotiations?

73. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

74. Findings
Mitigation is more dominant - the majority of
the clusters are about mitigation.
Mitigation is much more diverse and
distributed.
Adaptation is a much more tightly clustered
topic and highly connected to other topics.

75. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

76. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

77. Findings
Both adaptation and mitigation are highly
visible in negotiations.
Adaptation financing has been central to
climate negotiations from the outset.
There is a noticeable shift towards adaptation
during the period we examined.

78. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

79. Which countries intervene most in UN climate
negotiations and how do these interventions
evolve over time?

80. Graphing the number of interventions in the
negotiations of the 21 most active countries
based on daily summaries from the Earth
Negotiations Bulletin (ENB)

81. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

82. Findings
Notable stability in presence and intervention
of countries.
Notable exceptions include Bolivia and
Philippines who are becoming more prominent
in recent negotiations.
Most active are China (representing G77),
United States and Europe.
Countries tend to be more active when they
host the negotiations.

83. Venturini, T., Baya-laffite, N., Cointet, J., Gray, I., Zabban, V., & De Pryck, K. (2014) “Three Maps and Three
Misunderstandings : A Digital Mapping of Climate Diplomacy.” Big Data and Society, 2014, 1(1).
Available at: http://medialab.sciences-po.fr/publications/misunderstandings/

84. Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.

85. Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.

86. Wired Italia (2014) “Cambiamenti del clima: 20 anni di conferenze”. March 2014. No. 60.

87. Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.
Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/

88. Wired Italia (2014) “Beautiful Information, in mostra le migliori infografiche di Wired”.
Available at: http://www.wired.it/attualita/media/2014/03/04/beautiful-information-infografiche-wired/

89. Mapping the rise of the
far right in Europe with
the web and social media

90. The Guardian (2013) “The rise of far right parties across Europe is a chilling echo of the 1930s”.
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/15/far-right-threat-europe-integration

91. Huffington Post (2014) “Sudden Rise of Far Right Groups in EU Parliament Rings Alarm Bells Across
Europe”. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elinadav-heymann/sudden-rise-of-far-right-
_b_5512961.html

92. New York Times (2014) “Populist Party Gaining Muscle to Push Britain to the Right”.
Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/world/europe/populist-party-gaining-muscle-to-push-
britain-to-the-right.html

93. What are the recruitment methods
of far right groups?

94. Are current recruitment counter-measures
proving effective?

95. What kinds of issues are most active
amongst far right groups?

96. How are far right extremist groups connected
to populist right and other right wing groups?

97. Profiles for 13 European countries.

98. 1. List of links per country
2. Analyse links between them
3. Study issues and actors

99. Findings
New issues (e.g. environment, anti-
globalisation and rights), principles and
recruitment techniques.
Counter-measures are outdated.
Islamophobia is located primarily in the North.

100. Greece: blood and soil and organic markets

101. Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online
Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy

103. Hungary: horse and yurt recruitment festivals

104. Rogers, R. et al (2013) “Right-Wing Formations in Europe and Their Counter-Measures: An Online
Mapping”. Digital Methods Initiative. https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/RightWingPopulismStudy

106. Taking back the yurt?

107. Counter-Jihadist groups on social media

108. The Guardian (2012) “Far-right anti-Muslim network on rise globally as Breivik trial opens”.
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/14/breivik-trial-norway-mass-murderer

109. Hope Not Hate (2012) “Counter-Jihad Report”.
Available at: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/counter-jihad/

110. Are different Counter-Jihadist groups in
Europe connected? If so how?

111. Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping
the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”

112. Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping
the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”

113. Findings
Facebook is an important medium for extremist
groups.
Three main clusters based on geographical
proximity.
European Counter-Jihadist groups are networked
and transnational.

114. Digital Methods Initiative. “Counter-Jihadist Networks: Mapping
the Connections Between Facebook Groups in Europe.”

115. Who are the new leaders?

117. Findings
Offline leaders are active on Facebook.
There are also new emerging online leaders.
New technique for identifying online leaders.

118. Mapping the influence of
climate skeptics online

119. BBC News (2007) “BBC switches off climate special”. Available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6979596.stm

120. – Richard Rogers, Digital Methods
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013), pp.7-8
“The skeptics were increasingly at the top of the
news. […] Are the skeptics at the top of the
web too?”

121. Who talks about climate skeptics?

122. Climate Skeptics
S. Fred Singer
Robert Balling
Sallie Baliunas
Patrick Michaels
Richard Lindzen
Steven Milloy
Timothy Ball
Paul Driessen
Willie Soon
Sherwood B. Idso
Frederick Seitz

123. Climate Skeptic Organisations
American Enterprise Institute
American Legislative Exchange Council
Center for Science and Public Policy
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Frontiers of Freedom
Marshall Institute
Heartland Institute
Tech Central Station

124. Google Scraper: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ToolGoogleScraper

126. Findings
Influence of climate skeptics in media is
disproportionate given their relatively marginal
influence in key spaces.

127. Digital Methods Initiative (2007) “Climate Change Skeptics”.
Available at: https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/ClimateChangeSkeptics

128. 3. Networks

129. The rise of networks

130. Mark Lombardi’s “Narrative Structures” (1990-2000)

131. Josh On’s “They Rule” (2005)

132. Muckety: http://www.muckety.com/

133. Little Sis: http://littlesis.org/

134. Networks have yet to have their
“breakthrough moment” in journalism

135. “Follow the Networks” project at
Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University.

136. How are networks concepts and analysis
being used in journalism?

137. A proposed classification of narrative
functions for networks in journalism

138. Five different ways in which networks have
been used in journalism

139. 1. Showing networks around a single actor

140. Washington Post, “Top Secret America” (2010)

141. Thomson Reuters, “Connected China” (2013)

142. 2. Revealing hubs or authorities (key actors)

143. New Scientist, “The Stem Cell Wars” (2010)

144. JoongAng Ilbo, “Park Young-joon at the Center of
President Lee Myung-bak’s Human Resources Network” (2002)

145. 3. Showing scale, complexity and topology
of a network

146. Thomson Reuters, “Connected China” (2013)

147. New York Times, “Among the Oscar Contenders, a Host of Connections” (2013)

148. 4. Showing alliances and oppositions

149. Le Monde, "2007-2011 : la cartographie de la blogosphère politique" (2012)

150. Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)

151. 5. Showing evolution of networks over time

153. Global News, “Visualizing the split on Toronto City Council” (2012)

154. How might networks concepts and analysis
be used in journalism in the future?

155. Functions of network analysis in the
newsroom
• Presentational or storytelling device
• Story discovery
• Exploratory analysis of complex networks
and big databases
• Newsroom knowledge management
• Internal reference resource

156. Opportunities
• New insights into large and complex
systems
• More network analysis, rather than just
network mapping
• New data and methods for tracing networks
using social media and hyperlink analysis
• Identifying new sources for interviews
• Researchers and journalists collaborating to
tell stories about complex topics

157. Challenges
• Lack of awareness
• Lack of flagship projects
• Time, resource and budget constraints
• Lack of technical capacity and tooling
• Speed of tools and methods
• Lack vocabulary for talking about network
analysis

158. Thank You!
Liliana Bounegru | lilianabounegru.org | @bb_liliana
Jonathan Gray | jonathangray.org | @jwyg