Slides from the morning session at Day 2 of the Cartagena Data Festival 2015.

1. April, 2015 · Ulrich Atz · @statshero
Telling Stories with Data

2. Introductions
• Your name
• Where you’ve come from
• Role
• Your aims/expectations for this
session.

3. • You’ll have an overview of how people are telling
stories
• You have a sense of the raw work of exploring and
understanding a dataset
• You know some inception points for finding a story
Outcomes

4. Discussion
What is data for you?

5. EXAMPLES OF
DATA JOURNALSIM

6. http://www.theguardian.com/news/
datablog/2012/may/24/data-journalism-
punk

8. http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/

9. Data is a source

10. Two main methods of
using data as a source
1. Story first – data used to
enhance, fact check, dig
deeper
2. Data first – story found/
presented through data
analysis

11. Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

12. Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

13. Thanks to David Ottewell Head of Data Journalism Trinity Mirror (Regionals) for permission in using this slide

14. Using data as a source ≠ must have visualisation
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4b1a2f64-2048-11e3-9a9a-00144feab7de.html

15. Using data as a source ≠ (necessarily) big investigation
http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/02/26/the-eu-could-ban-roaming-charges-completely-this-year/

16. http://aviation.live.kiln.it/

17. Exercise: Find a story
http://bit.ly/odi-titanic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Stöwer_Titanic.jpg

18. 1. Explore the data (here: follow my speed run)
Exercise

19. Story inception points
1. Create a ranking
2. Compare groups
3. Use sum/average/min/max functions
4. Think local
5. Look for anomalies in the data

20. 1. Explore the data (here: follow my speed run)
2. Collect three ideas for finding a story
q Choose one story you want to tell
q Create a headline
q (Bonus: Create a chart, e.g. with
datawrapper.de)
Exercise

21. Thank you!

22. Our top tip: BBC Radio 4 / Podcast
More or Less
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/moreorless

23. BONUS SLIDES:
HOW (NOT) TO
VISUALISE YOUR DATA

24. Non-traditional
use of chart
types

25. Arbitrariness of double axes

26. Charts that use ALL THE DATA

27. Selective use of data
http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/05/16/11-mistakes-that-will-drive-data-nerds-crazy/

28. Finding a meaningless correlation
http://www.tylervigen.com/

29. Y-axis does not
start at zero