Alfredo Covaleda,
Bogota, Colombia
Stephen Guerin,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
James A. Trostle,
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
The premise of the IAJ is to discover find how other professions and academic disciplines do what we do as journalists. That is, how do they find and analyze data and then present the results of that analysis.
We recently subscribed (it's free) to Law Technology News. It's no surprise that the data management needs of large law offices are much the same as those of journalism organizations. Lawyers pretty much follow the RRAW-P process, too. So topics like Calendaring, Case Management, Contact Management, Document Management, Electronic Data Discovery (EDD) are right up our alley. Law Technology News doesn't do much journalism, in fact it pretty much reprints press releases. But it does provide many, many pointers to products and methods related to journalism. Give it a look. as well.
A future question for the SAT or GRE exams: “What is the relationship between Tom DeLay and redistricting?” Obviously that one is going to have many, many possible correct answers. But redistricting is a difficult and complex topic. This recent paper, though, might provide a good jumping off point for reporters working on the topic. “Public Choice Principles of Redistricting” BY: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA USC Marshall School of Business USC School of Law THOMAS W. GILLIGAN University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Document: Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection: http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=775186 Paper ID: USC Law and Economics Research Paper No. 05-18; USC CLEO Research Paper No. C05-8 Date: July 2005 Contact: JOHN G. MATSUSAKA Email: Mailto:matsusak@usc.edu Postal: USC Marshall School of Business Dept. of Finance & Business Economics Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES Phone: 213-740-6495 Fax: 213-740-6650 Co-Auth: THOMAS W. GILLIGAN Email: Mailto:TGILLIGAN@MARSHALL.USC.EDU Postal: University of Southern California Marshall School of Business Los Angeles, CA 90089 UNITED STATES ABSTRACT: This paper uses fundamental principles of public choice, mainly the median voter theorem, to develop a simple theory of redistricting. The focus is on how closely policy outcomes correspond to majority rule. The main results are: (1) Potential policy bias in favor of nonmajority groups is structurally linked to the number of legislative seats and the population, and the structure of most states puts them very close to the theoretically maximum bias. (2) Random districting, which might seem like the essence of neutrality, does not eliminate policy bias on average. (3) Traditional principles of compact, contiguous districts that respect existing political boundaries, stressed in the Supreme Court's Shaw v. Reno decision, minimize the chance of nonmajoritarian outcomes.”
Matt Ericson of the NYTimes has delivered yet again a piece of superb infographics. This one, sadly, illustrates the 2000+ U.S. deaths in Iraq. (See “Deaths in Iraq by Month” in the 26 Oct. 2005 story “2,000 Dead: As Iraq Tours Stretch On, a Grim Mark“) William Playfair (1759-1823) was the Scottish engineer and political economist who did the ground-breaking work in visual statistics. Charles Joseph Minard, in the mid-nineteenth century, produced the classic infographic of Napoleon's March to (and retreat from) Moscow. Minard's great work is notable for displaying multiple data sets on a timeline as well as their geographical relationships.
Ericson has done something similar by showing the combat deaths in Iraq from the March 2003 invasion until mid-Oct. 2005 as the occupation continues. Ericson shows not just the numbers, but the branch of service, the locations of the deaths and the causes of death (i.e. explosive devices, vehicle or plane crashes, etc.).
It's a brilliant piece of work that also demonstrates the added value that very good journalists and their editors can bring to what should be public discussion. But this kind of work doesn't happen overnight, nor is it cheap to do. (Are you listening Knight-Ridder, Gannett, et al.?)
We would only hope that someone at the Times would work to develop a flash program/presentation that would, in a relatively automatic mannter, constantly update this important informational display.
Our associate Vince Giuliano had some words of wisdom last week for the Innovation International Media Consulting Group and its audience in Cambridge, Mass. at the “WHAT'S NEXT: THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE” conference.
Vince's PowerPoint presentation (no audio) deals with basic trends likely to have profound affects on our lives over the coming 10 years – and key implications of these trends for newspaper companies. You can find it in HTML format on the new Electronic Publishing Group website www.epublishinggroup.com
This in from the Houston Chronicle via GIS Development online mag: “FEMA's official flood maps called obsolete
“As part of its management of the National Flood Insurance Program, FEMA maintains more than 90,000 maps to show areas where flood insurance is advisable and where construction would be risky. However, new developments in flood zones have generally rendered the maps inaccurate and obsolete. Faulty maps have a major impact on people and property owners. Local communities rely on these maps to help them limit construction within flood zones and to determine who can buy federal flood insurance.
“The inspector general's report raises serious questions about federal funding for the modernization effort, a $1.5 billion, six-year project that is intended to post accurate and easily updated digital maps on the Internet by 2010. The program already is behind schedule, and many state governments said that federal funding is far short of what they need to provide correct mapping information.
Source : http://www.chron.com
Maurice Tamman, of the Herald Tribune, Sarasota, Fl, posts to the NICAR (National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting) listserv:
“In recent months we’ve been experimenting with Google Maps APIs to bring dynamic maps to our coverage. (Last month we used it to illustrate how Florida property tax system creates crazy inequities: www.heraldtribune.com/saveourhomes/)
“Late last week, we slammed together a hurricane damage entry and reporting system for the six Southwest Florida counties, from the Keys to Manatee County. Users can zoom to a neighborhood and either view reported damage or report damage. (www.heraldtribune.com/damages/)
“I’m not sure how much use it’ll get because the storm stayed so south of us. Still, I think it illustrates the flexibility of the Google system over more expensive GIS server solutions, especially for smaller papers.”
Good job in seeking to employ a creative application of existing tools.
NASA's hurricane site has posted some novel maps and graphics of Wilma, including some 3-D and animated illustrations of the “hot towers.” “The arrival of Hurricane Wilma on October 15, 2005, tied the record for most named storms in a single Atlantic hurricane season. Within just days Wilma went from tropical storm to Category 5 hurricane status and broke the record for lowest pressure ever recorded inside a hurricane. New satellite observations show towering thunderclouds, sometimes called hot towers, that signaled the onset of intensification in this remarkable storm.“
An excellent article in today's Salon magazine provides a thorough assessment of the state of broadband access in the United States. The U.S. continues to fall behind other countries in broadband penetration. The problem, according to the article, stems from federal mismanagement of telecom policy and misrepresentation of the current levels of broadband access and quality.
The digital divide seems to widen with each advance in technology — even when a technology emerges that could make providing access cheaper and easier. The divide runs along familiar lines of class and geography (rural vs. urban), and the line between regions that can attract new businesses and residents and those that can't. It can also be seen as a divide between those with better access to news and information and those without access.
The article also puts in fresh perspective efforts by municipalities — San Francisco being the most recent and prominent — to provide broadband Internet services directly to their citizens. Telecom companies claim that this stifles the competition that can lead to lower prices and better quality. And yet most Americans have neither.”
GIS software discount for IRE members Return to IRE Training
Members of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., qualify for discounts on geographic information system (GIS) software from ESRI, the publisher of ArcView. ESRI is offering ArcView GIS single use licenses at no charge to IRE members who agree to attend a GIS training event conducted by IRE and NICAR or ESRI. Purchasers must sign a three-year maintenance agreement with ESRI at a cost of $ 400 a year, with the first year's fee waived. ArcView, the GIS program most widely used by journalists, lists for $1,500. During the maintenance agreement period, purchasers will receive software upgrades and technical support.
IRE members must attend a qualifying training session within one year of entering the agreement with ESRI, which is based in Redlands Calif., and has been a regular exhibitor at the annual IRE and CAR conferences. Qualifying sessions are IRE and NICAR's Mapping Data for News Stories mini-boot camp, offered two times a year with the next scheduled for Jan. 6-8, 2006; an online ESRI Virtual Campus course, and ESRI classroom training.
For more information about IRE and NICAR training visit IRE Training . For more information about ESRI training see www.esri.com/training_events.html. IRE members can also purchase discounted extension programs, which expand the analytical capabilities of ArcView. The single-license cost for Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst and Geostatistical Analyst is $1,500 each. That is a 40 percent discount off the list price of $2,500 each. To obtain an order form, please contact John Green, membership services coordinator for IRE, at jgreen@ire.org or 573-882-2772.
