Data journalism is more than facts and\nfigures, charts and tables. More than statistics\nand balance sheets, data can be used to tell a\nhuge variety of stories.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third annual Data Driven symposium,\nhosted by Humber\u2019s Faculty of Media and\nCreative Arts (FMCA), was held on Nov. 15 at\nGoogle Canada\u2019s Toronto Headquarters.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Started in 2017 by David Weisz and Andrew Ainsworth, Data Driven is a chance to have an in-depth look into the strategies and techniques to turn raw data into tomorrow\u2019s headlines. Investigative and data journalists shared stories they have been able to tell through the use of data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guillermo Acosta, Dean of FMCA, said\nthis year\u2019s symposium was very interesting.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was so struck by the depth of the work\nthat is being done and I was struck by the\npower of the women working behind this, the\npower of the diversity and the that is present\nin this field of Journalism,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Acosta said his appreciation has grown for\nthe field. \u201cThe big learning moment for me\nwas the first one and the second and third I\u2019ve\nseen the evolution.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Counting trees\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Toronto Star data journalist Megan Ogilvie said she was eager to tell a hard-hitting story that was going to change the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, I pitched a story on trees,\u201d she told the\naudience.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story stemmed from a story concerning a 300-year-old oak tree, Ogilvie said that she noticed how engaged Star readers became with the story, and began to see a story behind it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought, \u2018surely there\u2019s more than one\n300-year-old tree in the city, where are they,\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kit Kolbegger spoke at the 2019 Data Driven symposium on their experiences with the National Student Investigative Reporter Network. Photo by Galvin Zaldivar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n can we talk to our readers about it?\u2019\u2019 she said. As with all good data stories, Ogilvie said she started by looking for who would have data on the old-growth trees in Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In searching for the data needed to tell the story, she said the story changed as she began to sort through the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the end, the story became more of a look at how we\u2019re not really doing a really good job of keeping track of big, old, important trees in the city,\u201d Ogilvie said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As with all data stories, there were data holes and problems that had on caring for old-growth trees in Toronto, and how the city could improve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the story, we pointed out in the story\nwhy Toronto should and could be doing\nmore,\u201d Ogilvie said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the Star looked at the U.K.\u2019s heritage tree program, which keeps track of 150,000 old-growth trees, and New York City\u2019s heritage tree registry as examples of how Toronto could take care of its old growth trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you talk about trees, you have to show these trees,\u201d she said. \u201cWe picked 10 beautiful trees to show our readers with a neat video and interactive format so they could meet some of these really special trees in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The response to the story was amazing ac- cording to Ogilvie, with people sending in their stories about their favourite tree in the city. \u201cJust like we do, we follow the readers\u2019 stories and a few days later we profiled five more trees in the Star,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This led to Ogilvie compiling a weekly feature called Tree of the Week which gave Torontonians the chance to share stories about their favourite trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had readers telling us how much they loved it and how it was important to high- light the beautiful things in their city because it gave them a sense of connection to their neighbours, their neighbourhood, their community,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A rough ride\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Annie Burns-Pieper of the Globe and Mail\nspoke of her research into sexual violence on\npublic transit, and how the data she received\ninfluenced the story she told.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a story that came to me as a woman living in Toronto, an investigative reporter, who took public transit a lot,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Burns-Pieper started her investigation, she knew other outlets had covered the\nissue in the past and assumed the data would\nbe readily available.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis investigation ended up taking three\nyears of my life,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the story\nended up being much different than the one\nI thought I was going to tell.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n After going through the data of the 22 largest transit systems in the country, and their local police services, Burns-Pieper said she discovered many data gaps in the way local police forces and transit systems recorded in- stances of sexual violence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAt the same time, I was collecting data on\nthis story, I was talking to survivors of sexual\nviolence on public transit,\u201d she said. \u201cI spoke\nto over 50 people during the course of the re-\nporting, mostly young women.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the cases Burns-Pieper examined\nwas a Calgary incident that was well known to\npolice, the city and the transit system, but was\nnot included in the transit system\u2019s own data\non sexual violence.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was confused,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know\nhow a story that had been reported in multiple\nnews outlets and was well known to the police\nwas missing from the transit system\u2019s data.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking through her data, Burns-Pieper\ndiscovered multiple instances of sexual vio-\nlence being reported to transit authorities, but\nnot being reflected in the data.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burns-Pieper said the missing data then became part of the story, and knowing what\u2019s missing can influence the direction a story\nmay take.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let the numbers talk\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael Robinson of the Telegraph-Journal out of New Brunswick spoke of creating stories with limited data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson\u2019s story was on the deficiencies of the billing number system formerly used by New Brunswick to assign doctors to an appropriate region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot of pivot tables or data\ncrunching but just simply showing those\nnumbers…we really let the numbers speak for\nitself,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robinson said that despite the simple\nnature of the data, he was able to illustrate the\nissues with the billing number system to effect\nreal change.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said her data journalism professor said\nthe real power of data is made manifest when\nyou put two sets of data together and look at the\nsimilarities to find a new angle and perspective.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m thinking about how to do that,\u201d Sun\nsaid. \u201cI like to bake, so I\u2019m thinking about this\nstory as baking a blueberry pie.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about each component data set as a\npiece of the pie, she said. The income level can\nbe seen as the pie crust, and each collision as a\nsingle blueberry that forms the filling.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor my story, those blueberries [were]\ndistributed disproportionately all over the\ncity,\u201d Sun said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sun found 53.1 per cent more pedestrian-involved collisions happened in the poorest neighbourhoods than in the richest. She also found that jaywalking and crossing with the right of way were the top two causes of collisions in the lowest income areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sun told the Data Driven audience that census data is the best gift a data journalist can get. Using census data, journalists can reveal systemic programs and model emerging social trends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can use census data to empower your story and to make your blueberry pie,\u201dshe said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n