How to build a data-first mindset in your newsroom
Kuang Keng Kuek Ser, the founder of Malaysia-based DataN which helps newsrooms with data journalism, wants you to know it’s easier than you think.
Takeaways
Newsrooms can create great data journalism with limited resources through training, collaboration, and advocacy.
Data might be able to provide better evidence to convince the audience or policy-makers.
As a media company, you can incorporate data journalism skills into your business model. Indonesia-based Katadata provides news, data, and research, and also sells data intelligence on economy, business and finance.
To promote ethics in data journalism, consider making the data open to the public.
Context
Many newsrooms are trying to incorporate data journalism mindsets in their teams, but numbers, Excel, and pivot tables aren’t for everyone. Kuang Keng Kuek Ser, the founder of Malaysia-based DataN, talked about how to use data to find and tell a story, as well as equipping newsrooms with a powerful data journalism mindset.
Keng’s journey
Keng’s journalism journey started at Malaysiakini.com in 2005 as a reporter, where he worked for eight years.
The experience there took him to New York University’s Studio 20, a Master’s program specializing in new media and digital innovation, under a Fulbright scholarship.
After completing the program, he joined the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism where he developed DataN.
In 2015, he was selected as a Google Journalism Fellow, which sent him to Public Radio International, where he worked as a data journalist until late 2017.
In addition to working on DataN, he has also served on the panel of many data journalism awards, including Sigma Awards and Data Journalism Awards by Global Editors Network.
Don’t use data to report; use data to measure problems. So what does data journalism measure?
Problem: How big is the problem? Is the problem getting better or worse?
Impact: Who is affected by the problem? How? Are some groups more affected than others?
Causes: What are the causes of the problem? Whose fault is it? What factors have made it worse?
Solutions: What are the solutions to the problem? How effective are the solutions?
How does one get started?
Start with a hypothesis or question first, not data. Many newsrooms make that mistake. If you start with data, it’s like you’re going on a fishing trip without knowing where the fish are.
Form your hypothesis or question that can be measured or answered by quantitative information, and that can lead to an action or solution.
Use any of the four approaches - problem, impacts, causes, solutions - to form your hypothesis.
Find and collect data, then analyze it.
Communicate and present your findings to your newsroom.
Use visualization or animated visuals.
Tell a story. Don’t just show numbers.
Use these resources
Google Live Trainings with DataN: A six-part webinar series on digital tools, data journalism. Fact-checking in English, Chinese, and Malay.
Thibi Recipes (still in beta): Similar to the meal subscription service Blue Apron which teaches users to cook gourmet meals, Thibi Recipes provides step-by-step guides for users to create data journalism projects. It breaks down published reports and analysis into small steps to follow.