User:Mirkolorenz/Data-driven journalism

Data-driven journalism describes a workflow where journalists use data from public or internal sources for reports.

Background
Data-driven journalism is a sub-genre in journalism. While there have been publishers and news companies using data for more than a hundred years, the recent increase in available data currently results in a new discussion among journalists, programmers as to how to use this data for reporting.

A starting point of the recent discussion has been the publication of an article by Adrian Holovaty, "A fundamental way newspaper sites have to change", published in 2006.

History
Data-driven journalism is not an entirely new trend. Even before the advent of the internet publishers used collected data for publications. The rating agencies Standard & Poor, Moody's for example started by collecting data about US railways, mainly for European investors. Two more recent examples are Thomson Corporation and The Economist Intelligence Group.

Examples
New York Times: Rent or buy calculator Good example how data can be combined with an interactive feature. The "Rent or buy calculator" answers questions whether an investment in a house or flat is better than simply renting it.

Every Block The site collects data for a number of US cities, down to single blocks. http://www.everyblock.com/