Damian Radcliffe

Data journalism in the US: Three case

studies and ten general principles for
journalists

Data journalism is a well established story-telling method across different

news media in the United States. Analysis of this landscape (together with
three detailed case studies) allows us to determine elements of best practice,
Damian Radcliffe and his students at the University of Oregon argue

1. Politics
For the average American, the world of politics
can be difficult to navigate and even more
treacherous to understand. Indeed, the field is
often filled with an abundance of buzzwords
and technical terms. For example, many
people understand the power of lobbying in
politics. However, there is usually a disconnect
between this abstract understanding and
actual knowledge of how money moves more
widely in the system. To bridge that gap, a
variety of publications including ProPublica,
FiveThirtyEight and the Washington Post have
all begun to use data-driven story-telling to
bring readers into the loop.
ProPublica unravels the complexities of
campaign finance and voter fraud
ProPublica is a Pulitzer-winning non-profit
outfit known for its interactive, data driven
work which produces high quality investigative
journalism and public interest stories. In
February 2014, it ran a report showing the
complex way that Charles and David Koch
Image from ProPublica report:
spread their wealth in politics. How dark How voter fraud works and
money flows through the Koch network mostly doesnt

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includes an interactive map depicting how money flows out of the Kochs non-
profit networks (like the TC4 Trust and Freedom Partners) and into the pockets of
partisan organisations such as the National Rifle Association and Tea Party Patriots
(Shaw, Meyer, and Baker 2014). Initially, the map is overwhelming and difficult
to understand. By hovering your mouse over the different areas, however, you can
begin to see exactly how and where the money flows.
More recently, a November 2016 story examined a hot electoral topic: how
voter fraud works. How voter fraud works and mostly doesnt (Cagle 2016) uses
graphics to explore what voter fraud looks like across the country. The article is
primarily graphics-driven, using minimal text to provide context. A feature called
Fraud cards allows users to flip over cards that show documented cases of voter
fraud labeled by state and year.
FiveThirtyEight tackles crime and immigration
Another website using a data-driven model for much of its reporting is
FiveThirtyEight. Created by Nate Silver and owned by ESPN, it focuses closely on
polls and data for politics, economics and sports blogging. In a May 2017 article,
Latinos in three cities are reporting fewer crimes since Trump took office (Arthur
2017), data is used to analyse a decrease in crime reporting within predominantly
immigrant Latino communities.
The article posits that recent immigration reforms by President Trump are the
chief cause of this, and uses statistics and graphs from various cities with high
Latino populations to back the claim. The use of graphs within the article helps the
reader grasp the sharp declines that have occurred in a more tangible way.
The Washington Post unpacks Trumps budget proposals
Meanwhile, a 2017 online article from the Washington Post stands as an excellent
example of a traditional print publication using data journalism in the digital
medium. What Trump cut in his agency budgets (Soffen and Lu 2017) displays
a series of graphs and charts representing President Trumps proposed budget for
the US government. The proposal called for massive cuts in several departments
and an increase for the Defense Department, garnering much media attention and
political strife.
For each affected department, the Post uses a chart to illustrate the increase or
decrease in its budget with blocks, coupled with a graph showing the change in
budget over the past year, a description of what programmes are being cut from
the department and the impact of the new budget. This shows the possibilities
of turning data into charts and graphs to improve the story-telling. The visual
elements make the budget more understandable to the reader, as opposed to being
bombarded with a wave of numbers and text.

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Proposed budget changes, the Washington Post

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 Data journalism in the US: Three case studies and ten general principles for journalists

Proposed changes to the Defense Department budget, the Washington Post

The piece also has interactive features to enhance the pages user experience
(UX). It has a drop-down menu at the top that takes people down to the selected
department of their choosing, as well as a comments section at the bottom that
is automatically updated but can also be paused with the click of a button. This
allows the reader to express their opinions more efficiently and interact with the
online community and/or find their desired information.
Combining a clean, easy-to-use layout with concise story-telling, the page
demonstrates the Washington Posts understanding of the importance of the users
role in effective data-driven journalism.
2. Health and science
Both mainstream and specialist media continue to provide considerable coverage
of health and science related stories. However, in an era of instant information,
there is a risk of complex findings being misrepresented or misunderstood.
The American Council on Science and Health and Real Clear Science joined
forces to show as reflected in the infographic trustworthiness across three
measurements: the implementation of science journalism, the amount of evidence
they provide in their stories and how compelled the readers are by the stories.
Their research, and ours, suggests that utilising digestible, comprehensive and
interactive data to complement a story is crucial to the success and validity of
accurate scientific reporting.
Without clear evidence, science journalism loses its credibility and becomes little
more than a sensationalised opinion piece stripped of any true value. In todays
increasingly bipartisan world, hard scientific data may be one of the last slivers of
journalism that audiences can believe in.

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Infographic: The Best and Worst Science News Sites1

Fox News: Veganism
In a 2016 article, Fox News challenged some of the assumptions identified by
advocates of veganism which supporters argue is both environmentally friendly
and more environmentally sustainability citing a research study which explored
the impact of different diets on agriculture and land cultivation (Fox 2016).
Contrary to what a data story should entail, the article contained no statistics,
and the link the provided by Fox did not lead to the actual study, but a report on
the Quartz website.2

Screengrab of Fox News story

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 Data journalism in the US: Three case studies and ten general principles for journalists

Its left to Quartz to cite and link to the original research an open access
scientific journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene as well as to produce
reporting which includes important data and statistics from the study. In failing
to cover adequately a topic that could lend itself as an ideal data-based piece, Fox
News, in this instance, provides a clear example of how news outlets are failing to
provide evidence-based journalism.
FiveThirtyEight: Eat like The Rock
In stark contrast to the conservative Fox News, the data-heavy online publication
FiveThirtyEight aims to inform almost strictly through numbers. The website
is known for its analytical concentration on sports and politics, although it has
branched out from these fields. One intriguing example of this can be seen in its
2015 piece on the diet of Hollywood actor and former pro-wrestler Dwayne The
Rock Johnson (Hickey 2015).
The story breaks down Johnsons diet and presents the information in a way that
is easily digested by any audience. In one paragraph, the article hyperlinks to four
different sources providing information on average caloric intake, price of food
and pounds of cod consumed.

Screengrab from article about the daily diet of Dwayne The Rock Johnson

Beyond the basics of citing

sources, FiveThirtyEight sets
itself apart from text-heavy
publications with clean and
easy-to-understand visuals and
infographics to complement its
data. As seen in the chart, the
numbers are easy to interpret
because of the familiar and
simple layout; the author,
Walt Hickey, lets the data do
the talking.

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The Guardian: Raw milk: A superfood or super risky?

The Guardian is a well-established daily newspaper that covers science and health,
often effectively using data to aid the story-telling process. A recently published
article titled Raw milk: A superfood or super risky? explores the potential health
benefits and dangers of drinking raw, unpasteurised milk which almost 5 per
cent of people in the United States now consume (Simmonds 2017).

Screengrab from article featured in the Guardian online

While she does not utilise infographics and tables to the extent that
FiveThirtyEight does, Simmonds still does a thorough job of letting the data and
sources have their presence known. Through use of key stats including the size of
the market and the likelihood (based on past data) of getting ill from eating raw, or
contaminated dairy products Simmonds is able to pepper her story with figures
which provide important context for her wider piece. The debate over drinking
raw milk is ongoing, but the Guardian makes it clear that this traditional use of
data-informed reporting wont go sour anytime soon.
3. Sport
Being considered the greatest of all time is something every player and team strives
to be. But how do you prove your greatness? One way to do this is through data.
And luckily, sports fans as well as teams love data.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has historically been one of the
most competitive sporting leagues in the world, but that changed after the Golden
State Warriors hired Steve Kerr to be their head coach in 2014. The Warriors were
previously one of the worst franchises in the NBAs history, but now they have a
team that some pundits (Schwartz 2017) claim could be the greatest team ever to
play the sport. How does data support this claim? Three different publications
FiveThirtyEight, SB Nation and the San Jose Mercury News have each argued for
the Warriors historic superiority, using different data to help advance and evidence
their claims.

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FiveThirtyEight
FiveThirtyEight.com rose to fame after founder Nate Silver correctly used data to
predict the outcome of the 2012 US election, down to every vote in the Electoral
College and each congressional district. Now, along with political data journalism,
FiveThirtyEight is a leader in sports data journalism.
FiveThirtyEight has created its own dataset, Elo, to show how teams have been
performed throughout their history. FiveThirtyEight describes how it works: The
only inputs are the final score of each game, and where and when it was played.
Teams always gain Elo points for winning. But they get more credit for upset
victories and for winning by larger margins. Elo ratings are zero-sum, however.[3]
By using Elo, FiveThirtyEight shows how the Warriors were historically one of
the worst teams in the NBAs history.

Image: Long-term performance of the Warrior, FiveThirtyEight

When narrowed down to the last decade, the Warriors rise to power in the
league is evident.

Recent performance of the Warrior, FiveThirtyEight

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SB Nation
As SB Nation has shown, the Warriors also have two players who are statistical
anomalies: Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Curry is one of the best three-
point shooters to play the game (three-points are the most points one can score in
a single shot). Curry and Thompson were ranked first and second for made three-
pointers in the 2015-16 season (Cato 2016).

Steph Curry without an assist, SB Nation

Moreover, Currys shooting is not only dominant from just beyond the three-
point arc (23.75 feet from behind the basket), but he can also make shots from
deeper down the court (Cato 2016b).

Image: Steph Curry from long range, SB Nation

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 Data journalism in the US: Three case studies and ten general principles for journalists

Basketball is a team sport, but when a team has two of the best shooters the
game has even seen, it is no surprise a team can be so dominant. FiveThirtyEights
Elo has ranked the best teams to ever play,[4] but the current Warriors team has yet
to be part of it as the play-offs have yet to conclude. (Note the team subsequently
went on to win the NBA Finals in mid-June 2017).[5] Last seasons Warriors lost
in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers and that Warriors team is still ranked
third behind two of Michael Jordans NBA-winning Chicago Bulls.
Mercury News
A big contributor to scoring in basketball is assisting, a pass that directly leads to
a basket.[6] The Warriors are the least reliant on isolation basketball a technical
term that means a team chooses not to pass the ball (Slater 2016). In the 2017
season, as demonstrated by several videos on the San Jose Mercury News website,
the Warriors have had assists on 71.2 per cent of their made baskets, which is 6.1
per cent better than the next best team.
A lot of the credit for the Warriors success is also revelaed in a statistic that
is not normally kept: screens. Screens are when players plant both feet to block
an opponent from getting to a player on the opposing team. FiveThirtyEight has
documented the Warriors surprisingly dominant success at screens, crediting it to
the teams lethal attacking play (Herring 2017).

Image: from The beautiful chaos of the Warriors offense FiveThirtyEight

All in all, the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors may well be the best team to play
the game of basketball. Its not just the data that suggests this, their 2017 triumph
in the NBA Finals may just be the start of an extended period of unprecedented
on-court dominance by a brilliant team.

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10 key principles for data story-telling

Based on our reading across these three thematic areas and detailed research into
coverage provided by seven different journalistic outlets we were able to identify
a series of important principles which all journalists using data should seek to abide
by. Many of these values are not just applicable to data story-telling; indeed, they
should already be an established part of the journalists craft, but these principles
are worth reiterating nonetheless, not least because based on our reading and
research these core values are all too often overlooked.
1. Dont beat readers over the head with numbers. Data should be used to
illustrate key points and help bring a story alive. The data itself is seldom the
story, the implications of it need to be unpacked and explained.
2. Decide which tools allow you to tell a story best. Journalists have access
to a plethora of means, including graphs, infographics, charts, tables and
interactives to help tell a story. The value derived from each of these tools will
vary depending on the story you wish to tell and the key data that you want
to focus on.
3. Determine if you should develop a house style. When looking at sports stories,
we found that each publication favoured a different way of incorporating
data. The San Jose Mercury News tended to weave stats into stories, SB Nation
showed a preference for bar graphs, whilst FiveThirtyEight had a larger
propensity for tables and complicated graphs.
4. Determining your approach may be influenced by both the story you want
to tell and the data literacy and preferences of your audience. Either
way, your data-driven stories should be well designed so that audiences do
not struggle to understand whats being shown or how to interact with the
data. For complex visualisations that may mean including some instructions
(an idea too often overlooked by journalists), as well as links including
downloadable data files to the original sources used in these efforts.
5. Dont link to blog/press releases, link to the actual study. These types of
editorial shortcuts are often in evidence. But, in the hyperlinked economy,
there is no excuse not to take your reader to the original source of the
conclusions and data you are reporting on. Enable them to continue the
journey and check the veracity of your claims for themselves.
6. Provide proper attribution of your sources. Data-driven stories need to show
their sources and avoid unattributed assertions. Unfortunately, especially in
the health sphere, this is all too common. Journalistic assertions are often
made without links to the evidence which can (one hopes) back them up.
Dont fall into the same trap.

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7. Ensure your links work. Linking to broken sites, or incorrectly inserting the
correct address of a URL, is sloppy. If journalists dont care enough about
their work to get these basic elements right, is it any wonder that they fail to
inspire confidence in some of their audiences? Doing these core tasks well is
important, failure to do so merely helps erode trust in the profession.
8. Make it relatable and digestible. Data-driven story-telling still requires good
writing and a story news sense. Data requires context and explanation. Be
sure to provide it.
9. Dont overwhelm your audience. You dont have to provide all of your data at
once. Most stories work better if you decide the key elements to include, and
where the focus should be: you dont have to include every statistic you have
access to. Be selective whilst also being objective with data in the same
way as you would any other source.
10. Good data journalism is harder to find than you may think. Data-driven
story-telling includes many elements such as images, charts, graphics, visuals,
stats and interactives. Finding and reviewing examples of great (and even
not so great) work by other outlets (as we have sought to do here) can inform
and inspire your own efforts, as we all strive to improve our craft and be the
best journalists that we possibly can be.

Notes
1 http://www.acsh.org/news/2017/03/05/infographic-best-and-worst-science-news-
sites-10948
2 https://qz.com/749443/being-vegan-isnt-as-environmentally-friendly-as-you-think/
3 Fischer-Baum, Reuben and Silver, Nate (2015, updated 2017) The complete history of
the NBA, FiveThirtyEight, 21 May 2017, last updated 12 June 2017. Available online at
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/complete-history-of-the-nba/#warriors
4 Fischer-Baum, Reuben (2016) After all that, The Warriors arent even the second-
best team ever, FiveThirtyEight, 20 June. Available online at http://fivethirtyeight.com/
features/after-all-that-the-warriors-arent-even-the-second-best-team-ever/
5 http://www.slate.com/blogs/ring_don_t_lie/2017/06/13/the_golden_state_warriors_
are_2017_nba_champions.html
6 http://www.nba.com/canada/Basketball_U_on_Assists-Canada_Generic_
Article-18072.html

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References
Arthur, Rob (2017) Latinos in three cities are reporting fewer crimes since Trump took
office, FiveThirtyEight, 18 May 2017. Available online at https://fivethirtyeight.com/
features/latinos-report-fewer-crimes-in-three-cities-amid-fears-of-deportation/, accessed
on 28 May 2017
Cagle, Susie (2016) How voter fraud works and mostly doesnt, ProPublica, 3
November 2016. Available online at https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/voterfraud,
accessed on 28 May 2017
Cato, Tim (2016) These 3 charts prove Stephen Currys having the best shooting
season ever, SB Nation, 29 February. Available online at http://www.sbnation.com/
lookit/2016/2/29/11134406/stephen-curry-greatest-shooter-all-time-graphs-charts-stats,
accessed on 28 June 2017
Fox (2016) New study reveals vegan diet not so environmentally friendly, Fox News, 11
August. Available online at http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/08/11/new-study-
reveals-vegan-diet-not-so-environmentally-friendly.html, accessed on 29 May 2017
Herring, Chris (2017) The beautiful chaos of the Warriors offense, FiveThirtyEight, 19
May. Available online at https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-beautiful-chaos-of-the-
warriors-offense/, accessed on 28 June 2017
Hickey, Walt (2015) Dwayne The Rock Johnson eats about 821 pounds of cod per year,
FiveThirtyEight, 7 April 2015. Available online at https://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/
dwayne-the-rock-johnson-eats-about-821-pounds-of-cod-per-year/, accessed on 29 May.
2017
Schwartz, Nick (2017) Skip Bayless says the 2017 Warriors have a chance to be the
greatest team ever, Fox Sports, 23 May 2017. Available online at
http://www.foxsports.com/nba/gallery/skip-bayless-golden-state-warriors-best-team-ever-
finals-cavaliers-052317, accessed on 27 June 2017
Shaw, Al, Meyer, Theodoric and Barker, Kim (2014) How dark money flows through the
Koch Network, ProPublica, 14 February. Available online at http://projects.propublica.
org/graphics/koch, accessed on 28 May 2017
Simmonds, Charlotte (2017) Raw milk: A superfood or super risky? Guardian, 30 May.
Available online at https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/30/raw-milk-
health-superfood-safety-goop, accessed on 30 May 2017
Slater, Anthony (2016) The Warriors are on an impressive, Kevin Durant approved streak
of 30-plus assists, Mercury News, 20 November, updated 24 November. Available online
at http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/20/the-warriors-are-on-an-impressive-kevin-
durant-1approved-streak-of-30-plus-assists/, accessed on 28 June 2017
Soffen, Kim and Lu, Denise (2017) What Trump cut in his agency budgets, Washington
Post, 23 May. Available online at https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/
trump-presidential-budget-2018-proposal/?utm_term=.5e3e6f3c45eb#dept-19, accessed
on 28 May 2017

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Note on the contributors

Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism at the University
of Oregon, a Fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, an
honorary research fellow at Cardiff Universitys School of Journalism, Media and Culture
Studies and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce (RSA).
He is an experienced digital analyst, consultant, journalist and researcher who has worked
in editorial, research, teaching, and policy positions for the past two decades in the UK,
Middle East, and USA.
University of Oregon students: Aaron Alter, Romario Garcia Bautista, Eric Schucht and
Sam Smarglassi (politics); Ryan Eberle, Hannah Morrow, Tyler Smith, Mack Veltman
and Natalie Waitt-Gibson (health and science); Nick Baxter, Jonathan Booker, Cameron
Derby, Shawn Medow and Zach Wilkinson (sport) led the research and writing of this
chapter, with students drafting the research, writing and analysis of each thematic section.
The 10 principles section stemmed from a classroom discussion about the takeaways from
the research work undertaken by the group.

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