Fact

Sheet

Data driven journalism and Open Data: A strong connection Version May 2011

What is this fact sheet about? Public sector information (PSI) is of relevance for journalists because it tells us how our government works. When PSI becomes easier to access and process, it becomes more attractive for journalists to use it as a base for their stories Open Data is not only easily available but also of impressive quality. Consequently, a new specialty in journalism is surfacing: data journalism. Just as journalism profits from the availability of Open Data, PSI re-users and the Open Data movement can also benefit from the often eye-catching data visualisations and important stories that journalists find in PSI datasets. What is Data Journalism? are all food for the hungry data journalist and also Data (Driven) Journalism is is a journalistic process certainly not PSI. Data of this type is usually referred based on analyzing and filtering large datasets for the to as Open Corporate Data. purpose of creating a new story. Secondly, journalists have always been using confidential and leaked documents as sources to There are four basic types of data journalistic activities report on. One of the most recent and striking examples was the usage and release of the WIkileaks To discover newsworthy facts or stories. E.g. cables, that have provided so much leads for finding out about a polluting factory by journalists. Confidential data however, can never analysing air-quality data. really be Open Data as there is no formal license To discover trends hidden in large datasets. under which the data is released. E.g. finding out people started driving shorter distances when gasprices soared in a dataset A shared passion for transparency provided by the national car register. The Open Data movement is strongly connected to To compile datasets for further dissemination transparency and civic control of government. Both to the public. E.g. by compiling police reports Data Journalists and Open Data evangelists believe into a dataset monitoring governments and PSBs is part of their task To create data visualisations. E.g. about description. As such, the connection Data Driven budgets, crime rates plotted on a map etc. Journalists feel towards the Open Data is quite strong. In fact, much work is done in both communities that The Data comes from governments can be described as both Open Data work and Data Many data journalists use data that is released by Journalism. E.g. whenever the Open Data community governments. For example, journalists who use data builds services or products specifically tailored on air quality, pollution, crime rates, educational towards monitoring government and PSBs, we might quality and many other subjects are primarily using very well consider them to be data journalism. Even data that was recorded by public sector bodies (PSBs) though they wont appear in a newspaper, the results or under the responsibility of a PSB. Journalists also of such actions are that citizens that are ordinarily out use data from trade registers, meteorological offices of the loop obtain a much more profound and many other governmental sources. understanding of the processes and decisions made within the public institutions. They dont differ from but also from other sources traditional journalism that aims to explain and report We cant say that data journalists are entirely reliant on government. One example of Open Data tools that on governmental Open Data. They can use data from are used by journalists is the host of spending other sources, which can not be considered to be applications that now spawns across Europe. They Public Sector Information. have already made an impact and resulted in a Firstly, Journalists can write stories based on datasets considerable number of articles. released by commercial organisations. Trends in Housing prices and mortgages, car sales, economic indicators and the annual reports of large corporations ePSI Platform Fact Sheets provide short introductions to key concepts and developments, allowing new comers to the PSI re-use arena to get up to speed swiftly. Find ePSI Platform Fact Sheets at epsiplatform.eu.