1. Digital Divide and Computer
Assisted Reporting
Anna Poludenko

2. Digital Divide
• Imbalances of access to communication
technologies alone with political and
economical factors – digital divide = civil
society participation in global governance.
• Journalists as watchdogs of democracy - fail.

3. CAR
• Computer-assisted reporting describes the use
of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary
to write news stories.
• The spread of computers, software and
the Internet changed how reporters work. Reporters
routinely collect information in databases, analyze
public records with spreadsheets and statistics
programs, study political and demographic change
with geographic information system mapping, conduct
interviews by e-mail, and research background for
articles on the Web.

4. CAR
• To learn to understand what to look for,
where to find good information, and how to
weave it into a story.

5. Why CAR?
• CAR will helps to create, or improve, the
watchdog culture of the media.
• A database, a spreadsheet, helps to get some
stories that just can’t be acquired any other
way.
• Add depth and detail that fascinate readers.

6. Example

7. Example
• National Budget 2013
• $ 2.5 mln – a choir named after Berezin
• The biggest subventions from the national
budget got the citiestowns on the eastern
part of the country represented by pro-
government candidates – Parliamentary
Elections.

8. Ukraine
1. 40% of population have internet access.
(Gallup)
2. 10 years ago Ukrainian officials started
talking about the e-governance in the
country.
3. 2011 Open Government Partnership - $4.5
mln. in 2013.

9. Ukraine
• Tenders and e-procurement ($200 mln.
savings Georgia)
• A single data-center for all government
institutions.
• $100.000 Spent on National Informatization
program in 2011-2012 (National Informscience)

10. Everyone has a Web-site
Health Ministry

11. But it Doesn’t mean that the
information is there

12. CAR at J-School
• Teach to combine the traditional ‘nose for
news’ and ability to tell a compelling story,
with the sheer scale and range of digital
information now available.

13. Finding Data
• Search engines – file-
type, geodata, URL.
• Searching not for data
but places where it can
be.
• Data sites.

14. Finding Data
• Write Freedom of
Information request

15. Interpret Data
• Undocumented • Excel
• Messy • GoogleApps
• Know what you are
looking for.

16. Visualization is storytelling
• Make data
digestible
• Interactive
• Personalized
= tell a story