Data Journalism and Fiscal Policy

Amanda Hickman, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

Quoctrung Bui, Planet Money

Welcome, who we are.

http://piratepad.net/ravitch2015

Sunlight Open Data Map

I want to talk a little bit about open data, because it is relevant and important. Over the last decade, countless municipalities have updated existing open records legislation with open data laws that mandate that agencies make data available to citizens in usable formats.

City Council Discretionary Funding

New York City has a pretty good open data law, but the city's budgets are either exempt or just not enforced. But things like member items are really just trickling in and a lot of budget data either isn't there or isn't accessible. Until very recently, that information was published in a PDF. So if you wanted to, you know, look at it, you had to leap through flaming hoops. It is now available. Much of the rest of the city budget is also available, though hard to muddle through. So this is a plea to you all to realize and understand that not having access to data makes reporting harder, makes accountability harder, isn't okay. Generally.

What we know

What politicians know thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, Clair Miller, January 5, 2015

Welsh journalist Clair Miller keeps a great list of things politicians know that they wouldn't without FOI.

Why visualize?

Why Infographics

See also: http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/

Data Visualization Changes Stories

Broken Bonds

Broken bonds, Chicago Tribune, Dec 7, 2013

This is a great report from the Trib. Spend some time in it.

Where Women Fare Best, and Worst

Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs, New York Times, April 23, 2014

Charts let you show me all the numbers, even the ones that don't make it into the text.

Effective tax rates

Dayton's budget offers a chance to explore the rationale for collecting more taxes, Minn Post, February 15, 2011

I don't love this, visually, but sometimes all you want to show is how the numbers stack up.

Is it really a billion?

Philadelphia collects court debt decades later, Marketplace, December 20, 2012

Charts are great for comparisons.

PTA Fundraising

San Francisco Public Press

NPR

Data Visualization provides context. NPR did some reporting that is a little old at this point, though few of the details have changed as far as I know. They looked into data that showed that native kids in South Dakota were significantly more likely to be placed in foster care than white kids, even when the circumstances were similar, and that native kids were overwhelmingly going to (and, according to the Lakota People's Law Project being prescribed anti-psychotics at much higher rates --SJ Merc did a similar story on prescription drugs in CA. You should all do that story.) white foster homes. Their data viz piece looked at all fifty states and flagged the states where native kids are substantially more likely to be in foster care and in non-native homes.

WNYC

You can clearly see where there are not nearly enough Pre K seats to go around.

ProPublica

You can see where SBA loans are going along the Sandy-struck coast.

propublica

FEMA Is Buying Out Flood-Prone Homes, But Not Where You Might Expect

October 20, 2014

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Why the Housing Market Is Still Stalling the Economy

Clean. Focus on the data.

NYCHA OT

City Council members confront NYCHA over skyrocketing overtime costs, New York Daily News, December 17, 2014; NYCHA paid $106 million in overtime to workers in 2014 — with plumbers at top of list New York Daily News, December 16, 2014

Even without a visualization, data is pretty powerful stuff. Ross Keith pulled up NYCHA salary data and was more or less rummaging around in it when he realized that NYCHA Plumbers take home a lot of overtime pay. His NY Daily News Cover story has led to City Council Hearings.

Welfare Center Numbers

Numbers aren't everything...

Crime Classifications

... it is always easier to juke the statistics than change the facts

One Report, Different Perspectives

One Report, Diverging Perspectives, New York Times, May 10, 2012

Visualizations aren't neutral.

Hands On!

We have some good hands on projects to tackle.

What makes good data viz work?

Less is More

Know your encoding. Not sure? Check out the Data Viz Catalog

Style guides ProPublica's make for consistency across a publication.

Tech Jobs Have A Narrower Pay Gap

For Women in Tech, Pay Gap Is Unusually Small

Make the most of your space.

Pending Felony Cases

A Court System Mired in Delays, New York Times; April 4, 2014

Sometimes Small Multiples do a much better job. More small multiples at Everything the 113th Congress did (and didn’t do), in two amazing charts

The ugly version

If we put this all on one chart it is a lot harder to read.

What not to do

Tax Cut Expiry

Media Matters for America, July 31, 2012.

Tax Cut Expiry

NPR's "It's all politics" fact checked President Obama's State of the Union slides.

This isn't just a Fox News problem.

Shiller CAPE vs Implied Return

Shiller CAPE vs Implied Return

Do things for a reason. This is pretty typical. Why is the green line fatter than the rest. Do we really need to know this is an interactive chart? What am I supposed to be looking at? What is the blue wash adding? We could clean this up. A lot.

City Limits Chart
Group Amplifies Complaints by Foster-Care Parents, Kids, City Limits, April 8, 2014

Check your work. We're not in the habit of proofreading data visualizations, but what is going on here? Is this nationally? What should I be taking away from this? And what the heck is "FU 06"?

Don't just throw a ton of numbers at me -- tell me what I'm looking for. Unless you're just trying to fill space, in which case, go for it. Go fill that space.

If it doesn't belong on a continuum, don't put it on a continuum. What goes between "Male Driver" and "City Street"?

Doubled Up

The shocking number of moms who move in with others, and how much money they save (and while you're at it, know the difference between "moving" and "staying")

Probably worth scrolling down to look at the last image and talk about formats and not putting text inside of a picture.

A few more for the wall of shame

Don't distort your pie chart. Use consistent styles to avoid this and this.

Tools we use

CartoDB
R (and RStudio)
LibreOffice Calc
Highcharts
D3
QGIS

More super easy tools

Medium's Charted
Datawrapper
Quartz's ChartBuilder
RAW -- for flat graphics to edit in illustrator
Theres been a lot of chatter about http://silk.co and people love Tableau, but I often have trouble loading graphics from both. I've had Tableau embeds crash my browser on more than one computer. Plus, it isn't free

Keep learning

NICAR-L
NICAR and IRE conferences
Stack Exchange (what makes a good question)
Nathan Yau's tutorials

Stay in Touch

@amandabee | @qdbui

Never "click here"

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