Institute for Analytic Journalism

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Some researchers in the Computer Science department (nary a journalists to be found) are doing some interesting work trying to determine the degree to which people in different regions talk about different things. The assumption is, obviously, that newspapers are a good proxy for what people are talking about. Still, some smart people are wrestling with interesting ways to understand journalism. Be sure to check out the published paper at http://www.algorithm.cs.sunysb.edu/mehler/mypapers/heatmap.pdf

spatial analysis of news sources

21 December 2006

a large-scale news paper analysis system that is able to create "entity datamaps", a spatial visualization of the interest in a given named entity. the aim of this system is to identify entities which display regional biases, by estimating the frequency of reference of an entity in any given city.

entities likely to be geographically-biased include United States cities & local sports teams. entities likely to have little bias include foreign cities, country names, & national political figures. The text is acquired from about 800 US online newspaper sources.

[link: sunysb.edu (pdf)]

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Here's what it takes to get the job done

by JTJ on Sun 31 Dec 2006 06:14 PM MST

Friend Matt Waite, of the St. Petersburg Times, has an interesting post on his personal blog wherein he lists the 19 different software programs he used to prepare the latest installment of his ongoing work on the disappearance of wetlands in Florida. (Who could ever imagine such a thing?)

We wonder how many journalism educators could identify these programs and what they are used for?

The online version of "Vanishing Wetlands" (Craig Pittman is the lead byline on this episode.) is rich with details and interactive features, including a fine mash-up of Google Maps to show the location of some land in so-called "mitigation banks." Best of all, for the analytic journalism crowd, is the explication of the story's methodology. It's in some sort of embedded code that delivers the text in a pop-up. Look to the upper right of the homepage for a hot button.

By the way, these guys have been working this story for three years. Now THAT's the kind of dedication that produces insight and context.

And there's another good angle on this effort at "Working backward on the last wetlands story."

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