Talk at the School of Data conference in Thessaloniki

1. Are you a unicorn or
a racehorse?
@PaulBradshaw, Online Journalism Blog, HelpMeInvestigate
Birmingham City University and City University London
School of Data, Thessaloniki, June 2015
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30804458@N08/3316400889/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6990109980/

2. 3 things…
• What are unicorns and racehorses?
• Why are we seeing a split?
• How the work gets done

3. 1967: Phillip Meyer

4. 2005: Adrian Holovaty

5. Meyer was a racehorse.
Holovaty was a unicorn.

6. Racehorses look for the
story.

14. http://delicious.com/paulb/benfordslaw

15. Unicorns help users tell the
story.

21. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpaglSOj9OU#t=0m56s

23. ‘Data journalism’ is becoming meaningless
• Who says ‘computer assisted reporting’ any
more?
• You will never know all the tools
• News organisations choosing their direction:
do we build tools, or do we find stories?
• Enlightenment polymaths (university) vs
industrial specialists

24. “A courtier should have a
detached, cool, nonchalant
attitude, and speak well,
sing, recite poetry, have
proper bearing, be athletic,
know the humanities and
classics, paint and draw and
possess many other skills.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath

25. “A data journalist should
have experience with
cleaning, manipulating,
analyzing and displaying
data, familiarity with
financial documents,
familiarity with JavaScript,
experience with R…”

28. http://chooseyourownadventure.tumblr.com/post/80260931984/mummyshark-its-ripped-but-there-still-arent#notes
Choose your own
adventure…

29. Learn code.

30. Learn code.

31. Learn code.

32. Javascript can help
tell the story

33. http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/02/21/wayne-rooney-earnings/

34. Learn the tools

35. Learn the tools

36. http://chooseyourownadventure.tumblr.com/post/80260931984/mummyshark-its-ripped-but-there-still-arent#notes
What organisations
can do

37. Templates

38. A data unit

39. A datastore

40. Flexible CMS

41. Flexible CMS

42. A career path

43. Unicorns and
racehorses can work
together.

46. 3 things…
• Identify the objectives - and
whether you need unicorns or
racehorses
• Solve problems, don’t learn
languages - I don’t care if you know
PHP
• Collaborate and share - everyone
else thinks they’re catching up too

47. Thank
you.
@paulbradshaw
Online Journalism Blog
Help Me Investigate