This document summarizes examples of experimentation in journalism presented at NICAR 2012. It discusses the rise of data journalism and how it provides context and finds truth in digital data. Examples include visualizing war logs and analyzing documents on private security contractors in Iraq using data tools. The document encourages students to experiment and notes that failure is part of the process of innovation. It emphasizes adjusting mindsets to see changes as opportunities and provides tips on fostering student experimentation.

1. REINVENTING JOURNALISM
THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION:
SOME EXAMPLES
FROM NICAR 2012
MITZI LEWIS, MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY
“DIY DISRUPTION: REINVENTING JOURNALISM
THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION” PANEL
AEJMC 2012 CONFERENCE
AUGUST 9, 2012

2. WHAT IS DATA
JOURNALISM
“Data journalism is a new set of skills for
searching, understanding and
visualizing digital sources in a time that
basic skills from traditional journalism
just aren’t enough. It’s not a
replacement of traditional journalism,
but an addition to it.”
Jerry Vermanen
Source: http://datajournalismhandbook.org/1.0/en/introduction_2.html

3. “The growing importance of data journalism
lies in the ability of its practitioners to
provide context, clarity and, perhaps the
most important, find truth
in the expanding amount
of digital content in
the world.”
Alex Howard
O-Reilly Media
Source: http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/03/profile-of-the-data-journalist-6.html

4. “Data journalism
is the new punk”
Simon Rogers,
guardian.co.uk//data editor
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/may/24/data-journalism-punk

5. http://www.knightfoundation.org/
Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/

6. http://www.knightfoundation.org/
Source: http://www.knightfoundation.org/

8. “The energy level was incredible.
I didn’t see participants wringing
their hands and worrying about
the future of journalism. They’re
too busy building it.”
David Herzog
Missouri School of Journalism
NICAR Academic Advisor
Source: http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/03/rise-of-the-data-journalists.html

9. Source: http://projects.propublica.org/docdollars/

10. Source: http://overview.ap.org/blog/2012/02/private-security-contractors-in-iraq-analysis/

11. “A FULL-TEXT
VISUALIZATION
OF THE IRAQ
WAR LOGS”
Source: http://
overview.ap.org/blog/
2010/12/a-full-text-
visualization-of-the-iraq-
war-logs/

12. “USING OVERVIEW TO ANALYZE
4500 PAGES OF DOCUMENTS
ON SECURITY CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ”
Source: http://overview.ap.org/blog/2012/02/private-security-contractors-in-iraq-analysis/

13. Source: http://yfrog.com/nu2drnoj

14. DRONE JOURNALISM DEMO

15. LEARNING IS HARD

16. “We have to be inventors, because we
have the chance and duty to re-invent
journalism. But all great inventors have
one thing in common: they saw big
challenges as even bigger opportunities.
Let’s adjust our mindset and embrace
changes as chances. If we do so,
anything is possible.”
Johannes Kuhn
UGC Editor for Zeit Online
Source: http://www.journalism.co.uk/young-journalists/august-debate/the-challenges-feel-
blessed-integrate-innovate/

17. TIPS FOR FOSTERING
STUDENT EXPERIMENTATION
Show examples.
Explain how they were done.
Then go hands on. Just do it!
Realize that “failure is part of the process.”*
Participate in the community.
Remind students—and model for them—
that experimentation is FUN!
*Paul Bradshaw, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/15/media-two-tribes-arts-technology

18. KEEPING UP WITH
DATA JOURNALISM
Tools, slides and links from NICAR12:
chryswu.com/blog/2012/02/22/tools-slides-and-links-from-nicar12
NICAR website: http://www.ire.org/nicar/
The Data Journalism Handbook: datajournalismhandbook.org/
Data driven journalism resources:
datadrivenjournalism.net/resources/
NICAR mailing list:
http://www.ire.org/resource-center/listservs/subscribe-nicar-l/
Open data and data driven journalism mailing list:
http://datadrivenjournalism.net/mailinglist

19. QUESTIONS/
COMMENTS
Presentation:
bit.ly/aejmc12-diy or
Contact info:
Email: mitzi.lewis@mwsu.edu
Twitter: @mitzilewis