Build your own reporting robot

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    • How to use the automation function of Github, a tool for programmers, to create a web scraping bot to automatically gather information and data from the web. Our example will be using it to automate a tedious beat check. We will use: github, X-Ray and a little bit of JavaScript programming. No prior coding knowledge needed. Led by Daniel Lathrop, investigative reporter at the Des Moines Register and Aadit Tambe of the University of Maryland.

    Build a robot that collects data with GitHub Actions

    README

    Write the workflow

    GitHub Actions

    More training on Reporting & Writing:

    Google Earth Studio

    Learn how to use Google Earth Studio, Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Timelapse and Earth Measure Tool with training by author and data journalism expert Mike Reilley.

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    • To the Point 101 — Why we’re doing it and what successful TTP looks like

    We know our younger digital readers are seeking scannable, easy-to-digest content. Here’s what it is (and isn’t), how our efforts so far are helping us reach readers with premium and metered content and some successful examples on how newsrooms are putting it to use and making it a priority.

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    • Google tools for journalists

    Google Fact-Check Explorer, Google Public Data Explorer, Google Trends, Google search shortcuts/advanced search), MapChecking for crowd size estimates, PhantomBuster, VisualPing for tracking website updates and other cool tools and hacks.

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    • Microsoft Excel 05 – What if

    The more data you have, the more questions you will have about it, and the more answers it can provide. Excel has a variety of conditional formulas that let you evaluate subsets of your data to find the stories to tell: If…Then formulas; Conditional Functions; XLOOKUP; Array Functions.

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