Beginner

Focus on Your Writing: Writing With Data by Mike Reilley

Writing with numbers isn’t easy. The best data-driven stories don’t read like data stories. They focus on the humans, those impacted by the data and the issues.

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    • Microsoft Excel 04 — Pivot tables

    Pivot table are the simple solution for some, and a rare kind of magic to others. In this session, we’ll demystify pivot tables and show you how you can use them to simplify your analysis and give you more options than ever in how you extract your story.

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    • Microsoft Excel 03 — Top of the charts

    Numbers gives us the facts, but images tell us the story. In this session, we’ll show you how to create charts from your data, leverage Excel’s suggestions, modify them to […]

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    • Microsoft Excel 02 – Fill it out

    In this session, we’ll explore how Excel helps you add data in a flash. We’ll explore new data types that pull information from the internet and help you spot the important stuff at a glance: Conditional Formatting; Auto Fill; Flash Fill; Geography and Stock Data Types; Leveraging Tables for Expanding Data Sets  

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    • Excel 01 – Welcome to Excel

    In this session we’ll start at A1 and introduce you to the basics of Excel, how it’s structured, and how to get around in it. We’ll show you how you can start using formulas to take Excel beyond just a list of stuff.

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    • Data visualization: Datawrapper 301

    A deep dive on building choropleth and location maps. In 75 minutes we will build three maps, based on both US and global data. We will work on a more advanced chart and focus more on adding tooltips and footnotes in the charts.

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    • Google Trends 301

    How to download data from the Google Trends store and create Flourish graphics with it. Also: Tracking midterm election issues and candidates. How can you use Trends during an election?

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    • Google MyMaps 301

    Students will build layered maps. We will show them how to work multimedia into the map. We’ll use real data they can download. Bonus: We also will show how to use PhantomBuster to scrape data OUT of Google Maps.

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    • Protected: Scrape-a-palooza and Google Flourish

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Protected: Google Finance scraping and other tools for business beats

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Protected: Data-scraping websites, PDFs and Flourish

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Environment tools, Part III

    me new tools, such as the Environmental Justice Atlas that documents cases around the world of environmental infractions. We’ll also look at Protected Planet, which tracks conservation measures, and the Wildlife Dashboard.

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    • Empower your research with Lexis/Nexis

    How to conduct basic research for news stories.

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    • Tools for investigating non-profit organizations

    A look at tools for tracking non-profit finances, what their CEOs earn and much more. We also spend some time looking at Form 990s of charities and give you a chance to pull some on organizations in your area.

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    • Protected: Business reporters and editors: Tools for covering companies and industries

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Data-scraping web pages, PDFs and Google Finance

    How to extract data from the web and PDFs and flow them into a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to scrape real-time and historical stock data into Google Sheets to track specific companies or industries. Code: data

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    • Master classes for business reporters and editors, Part II

    We will cover Charity Watch, SEC filings, Form 990s on Guidestar, etc. Google Dataset Search, Google Scholar, including ways to analyze case-law. We will learn to scrape Google Finance to isolate stock data and historical stock data. And will finish by learning how to scrape data from business sites and visualize it using Flourish. Code: business

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    • Master classes for business reporters and editors, Part I

    We cover Charity Watch, SEC filings, Form 990s on Guidestar, etc. Google Dataset Search, Google Scholar, including ways to analyze case-law. We will learn to scrape Google Finance to isolate stock data and historical stock data. And will finish by learning how to scrape data from business sites and visualize it using Flourish. Code: business

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    • Using specialized search engines to find sources, data and fact-checks

    Execute deeper, more precise, more sophisticated web searches by harnessing specialized search engines. Diversity your stories, angles, sources and readers.

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    • Secure communications with sources and tipsters

    Tips and traps: Tools such as Signal app, Freedome and VPNs to keep you, your data and your sources safe.

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    • Basic databases in Google Flourish and other tools

    A few easy tools to help you show your work: Google Flourish, Airtable and Tableizer.

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    • Advanced fact-checking for reporters

    Fact-checking images, video and verifying facts.

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    • The best data on education

    What education data sets out there, and what stories can they help us tell?

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    • Investigative/data skills series: Data visualization using Infogram

    Data visualization for everyone using InfoGram, an easy but powerful tool available to journalists across Gannett.

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    • Basic Databases in Google Flourish and other tools

    A few easy tools to help you show your work: Google Flourish, Airtable and Tableizer.

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    • Investigative/data skills series: Data visualization using DataWrapper

    In part I of our two-part series, “Data visualization for everyone,” we explore DataWrapper — an easy but powerful tool available to journalists across Gannett.

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    • Google Public Data Explorer

    The Google Public Data Explorer is linked to reliable datasets that can help you build charts in minutes.

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    • Data scraping with Google Sheets and Tabula

    In this training video and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn how to scrape data tables out of web pages.

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    • Scraping online databases with Google Sheets

    An accessible way for anyone to quickly capture data that would otherwise require hundreds of hours at the keyboard to query.

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    • How to pry public records from a reluctant agency

    Government databases are public records, yet most agencies treat records requests for data as something exotic and fraught with challenges. Anticipate the objections and defeat them for the win.

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    • Unlocking the power of Excel pivot tables

    Slice and dice data to to organize your reporting, find patterns and reveal better stories.

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    • Data visualization introduction

    Visualizations can help make a complex story simpler. Play with simple data visualization tools, learn how to automatically import data into a map, and explore the elegant templates of Flourish.

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    • Introduction to using data in your reporting

    An overview of the key data analysis tools and techniques used to produce investigative stories, with examples of stories that were made possible with these tools.

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    • Backgrounding like a boss: Reporting on people and companies with free tools

    Even great reporters can get tricked by fake names or sketchy backgrounds. We’ll walk through some websites and strategies you can use to create a routine and spot potential red flags before you get burned.

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    • Advanced Search: Power tools for search, research and analysis

    See what users in your area are searching and discover story ideas on Google Trends. Explore Backlight, an AI tool for parsing massive amounts of documents.

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    • Verification tools

    Bad information is dangerous, especially in uncertain times. Learn how to verify images and video, investigate social media posts, and identify misinformation with open-source intelligence tools.

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    • Building a public records mindset

    A discussion on developing a documents state of mind — the key to doing solid watchdog work on a beat.

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    • Small newsrooms, big ambitions

    Just because your newsroom is small doesn’t mean your goals need to be.

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    • 9 Tips for Covering Election Misinformation

    Here are concrete, simple steps journalists can take to fight misinformation, avoid confusion and add context.

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