The
premise of the IAJ is to discover find how other professions and academic
disciplines do what we do as journalists. That is, how do they
find and analyze data and then present the results of that
analysis.
We recently subscribed (it's free) to Law Technology News. It's no surprise that the data management needs of large law offices are
much the same as those of journalism organizations. Lawyers
pretty much follow the RRAW-P process, too. So topics like Calendaring, Case Management, Contact Management, Document Management, Electronic Data Discovery (EDD)
are right up our alley.
Law Technology News doesn't do much journalism, in fact it pretty much
reprints press releases. But it does provide many, many pointers
to products and methods related to journalism. Give it a look.
as well.
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Co-directors:
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Month Archive
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Monday, October 31
Niche professsions doing the same thing journalists do
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 31 Oct 2005 01:29 PM MST
Thursday, October 27
When it comes time to do that redistricting story....
by
Tom Johnson
on Thu 27 Oct 2005 12:28 PM MDT
A future question for the SAT or GRE exams: "What is the relationship between Tom DeLay and redistricting?"
Obviously that one is going to have many, many possible correct
answers. But redistricting is a difficult and complex
topic. This recent paper, though, might provide a good jumping
off point for reporters working on the topic.
"Public Choice Principles of Redistricting" BY: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Law THOMAS W. GILLIGAN University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper Paper ID: USC Law and Economics Research Paper No. 05-18; USC CLEO Research Paper No. C05-8 Date: July 2005 Contact: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA Email: Mailto:matsusak@usc.edu Postal: USC Marshall School of Business Dept. of Finance & Business Economics Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES Phone: 213-740-6495 Fax: 213-740-6650 Co-Auth: THOMAS W. GILLIGAN Email: Mailto:TGILLIGAN@MARSHALL.USC.EDU Postal: University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES ABSTRACT: This paper uses fundamental principles of public choice, mainly the median voter theorem, to develop a simple theory of redistricting. The focus is on how closely policy outcomes correspond to majority rule. The main results are: (1) Potential policy bias in favor of nonmajority groups is structurally linked to the number of legislative seats and the population, and the structure of most states puts them very close to the theoretically maximum bias. (2) Random districting, which might seem like the essence of neutrality, does not eliminate policy bias on average. (3) Traditional principles of compact, contiguous districts that respect existing political boundaries, stressed in the Supreme Court's Shaw v. Reno decision, minimize the chance of nonmajoritarian outcomes."
When it comes time to do that redistricting story....
by
Tom Johnson
on Thu 27 Oct 2005 11:07 AM MDT
A future question for the SAT or GRE exams: "What is the relationship between Tom DeLay and redistricting?"
Obviously that one is going to have many, many possible correct
answers. But redistricting is a difficult and complex
topic. This recent paper, though, might provide a good jumping
off point for reporters working on the topic.
"Public Choice Principles of Redistricting" BY: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Law THOMAS W. GILLIGAN University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper Paper ID: USC Law and Economics Research Paper No. 05-18; USC CLEO Research Paper No. C05-8 Date: July 2005 Contact: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA Email: Mailto:matsusak@usc.edu Postal: USC Marshall School of Business Dept. of Finance & Business Economics Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES Phone: 213-740-6495 Fax: 213-740-6650 Co-Auth: THOMAS W. GILLIGAN Email: Mailto:TGILLIGAN@MARSHALL.USC.EDU Postal: University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES ABSTRACT: This paper uses fundamental principles of public choice, mainly the median voter theorem, to develop a simple theory of redistricting. The focus is on how closely policy outcomes correspond to majority rule. The main results are: (1) Potential policy bias in favor of nonmajority groups is structurally linked to the number of legislative seats and the population, and the structure of most states puts them very close to the theoretically maximum bias. (2) Random districting, which might seem like the essence of neutrality, does not eliminate policy bias on average. (3) Traditional principles of compact, contiguous districts that respect existing political boundaries, stressed in the Supreme Court's Shaw v. Reno decision, minimize the chance of nonmajoritarian outcomes." Wednesday, October 26
In the tradition of William Playfair and Charles Joseph Minard....
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 26 Oct 2005 02:08 PM MDT
Matt
Ericson of the NYTimes has delivered yet again a piece of superb
infographics. This one, sadly, illustrates the 2000+ U.S. deaths
in Iraq. (See "Deaths in Iraq by Month" in the 26 Oct. 2005 story "2,000 Dead: As Iraq Tours Stretch On, a Grim Mark")
William Playfair (1759-1823) was the Scottish engineer and political economist who did the ground-breaking work in visual statistics. Charles Joseph Minard, in the mid-nineteenth century, produced the classic infographic of Napoleon's March to (and retreat from) Moscow. Minard's great work is notable for displaying multiple data sets on a timeline as well as their geographical relationships. Ericson has done something similar by showing the combat deaths in Iraq from the March 2003 invasion until mid-Oct. 2005 as the occupation continues. Ericson shows not just the numbers, but the branch of service, the locations of the deaths and the causes of death (i.e. explosive devices, vehicle or plane crashes, etc.). It's a brilliant piece of work that also demonstrates the added value that very good journalists and their editors can bring to what should be public discussion. But this kind of work doesn't happen overnight, nor is it cheap to do. (Are you listening Knight-Ridder, Gannett, et al.?) We would only hope that someone at the Times would work to develop a flash program/presentation that would, in a relatively automatic mannter, constantly update this important informational display. Tuesday, October 25
What newspapers can -- should? -- being doing in the coming decade
by
Tom Johnson
on Tue 25 Oct 2005 04:28 PM MDT
Our associate Vince Giuliano had some words of wisdom last week for the
Innovation
International Media Consulting Group and its audience in Cambridge, Mass. at the "WHAT'S NEXT: THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE" conference.
Vince's PowerPoint presentation (no audio) deals with basic trends likely to have profound affects on our lives over the coming 10 years - and key implications of these trends for newspaper companies. You can find it in HTML format on the new Electronic Publishing Group website www.epublishinggroup.com Monday, October 24
GIS Development magazine: "FEMA's official flood maps called obsolete"
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 24 Oct 2005 12:22 PM MDT
This in from the Houston Chronicle via GIS Development online mag:
"FEMA's official flood maps called obsolete "Official maps that are supposed to guide homeowners and communities on
areas prone to flooding are obsolete and unreliable, a federal
investigation found. Despite a multi-year modernization effort, 70
percent of the maps are more than 10 years old, the inspector general
for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded in a 63-page
report, which also found that many of the flood plains on the maps were
hand-drawn and are difficult to update. The criticism is the latest to
be leveled at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been
widely blamed for mishandling the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
"As part of its management of the National Flood Insurance Program, FEMA maintains more than 90,000 maps to show areas where flood insurance is advisable and where construction would be risky. However, new developments in flood zones have generally rendered the maps inaccurate and obsolete. Faulty maps have a major impact on people and property owners. Local communities rely on these maps to help them limit construction within flood zones and to determine who can buy federal flood insurance. "The inspector general's report raises serious questions about federal funding for the modernization effort, a $1.5 billion, six-year project that is intended to post accurate and easily updated digital maps on the Internet by 2010. The program already is behind schedule, and many state governments said that federal funding is far short of what they need to provide correct mapping information. Source : http://www.chron.com
Newspaper hand-rolls some Google Maps for hurricane coverage
by
Tom Johnson
on Mon 24 Oct 2005 11:47 AM MDT
Maurice Tamman, of the Herald Tribune, Sarasota, Fl, posts to the NICAR (National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting) listserv:
"In recent months we’ve been experimenting with Google
Maps APIs to bring dynamic maps to our coverage. (Last month we used it to
illustrate how Florida
property tax system creates crazy inequities: www.heraldtribune.com/saveourho "Late last week, we slammed together a hurricane damage entry and reporting system for the six Southwest Florida counties, from the Keys to Manatee County. Users can zoom to a neighborhood and either view reported damage or report damage. (www.heraldtribune.com/damages/) "I’m not sure how much use it’ll get because the storm stayed so south of us. Still, I think it illustrates the flexibility of the Google system over more expensive GIS server solutions, especially for smaller papers."
Good job in seeking to employ a creative application of existing tools.
Saturday, October 22
3-D views of Hurricane Wilma
by
Tom Johnson
on Sat 22 Oct 2005 05:10 AM MDT
NASA's hurricane site has posted some novel maps and graphics of Wilma, including some 3-D and animated illustrations of the "hot towers."
"The arrival of Hurricane Wilma on October 15, 2005, tied the record for most named storms in a single Atlantic hurricane season. Within just days Wilma went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane status and broke the record for lowest pressure ever recorded inside a hurricane. New satellite observations show towering thunderclouds, sometimes called hot towers, that signaled the onset of intensification in this remarkable storm." Wednesday, October 19
Why is the U.S.A. a "Developing Nation" when it comes to broadband?
by
Tom Johnson
on Wed 19 Oct 2005 12:03 PM MDT
"October 18, 2005
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