Agenda
Nickel and Dimed: Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Macmillan, 2001. Introduction, Ch. 1
–Discussion of how to write about working poor. Blog: Nickel & Dimed, write about reporting techniques and ideas for reporting on low wage economy.
–Define the term “Working Poor.”
— Blog: Questions for interview subjects. Where to go and find them.
Numbers in the Newsroom
Excel:
–Minimum wage
–Students assigned geographical location for Census data.
–Data Cleaning Census spreadsheets.
–Tableau.
Homework
Questions
How they got to where they are, and what they see for themselves going forward.
“Was there anything you could have done to prevent living in this situation, and is there anything you believe you can do to get out of it?”
“Do you believe officials can and should help you and why?”
Is it hard to refrain from treating yourself or do you just block out the option of ever living out of your means?
If you had all the money in the world, what would be the first thing you spent it on?
How do you manage the instability of tips and keep an income that way?
How do you emotionally handle the comments of the men that come in almost daily?
Do you have a second job?
Do you struggle to make ends meet?
One question to ask a poverty-stricken worker is, “What is your living situation like, and do you feel comfortable in the place you’re staying now?”
“Was there anything you could have done to prevent living in this situation, and is there anything you believe you can do to get out of it?”
“Do you believe officials can and should help you and why?”
I would ask about kids, what ends they are trying to meet, the types of neighborhoods they live in our their living situations.
How they got to where they are, and what they see for themselves going forward.
One question I would ask is, when do they make the decision to sacrifice one necessity or want for another?
How much does the order of your necessities change by priority when you have children or a significant other?
What are the little things that you save on or sacrifice that make a difference for your every day budget?
Is it hard to refrain from treating yourself or do you just block out the option of ever living out of your means?
If you had all the money in the world, what would be the first thing you spent it on?
Numbers in the Newsroom
Sarah Cohen, Math Diva
Sarah Cohen’s “Numbers in the Newsroom” is a classic in journalism numeracy. She is a Pulitzer-winning journalist at The Washington Post, a former Duke University professor and now a data journalist at The New York Times.
* Limit yourself to 8- 12 digits, including dates such as 2012, in a single paragraph.
–This allows us to stress the most important numbers
A refresher on AP Stylebook on numbers
–Simplify your story using rates, ratios or percentages. “One in four” = ratio or rate. “Forty percent” = ratio or rate. 235 deaths per 100,000 is another. See pg. 11
*Memorize some common numbers on your beat: Population of Fayetteville. Population of Arkansas. Population of the U.S. Per capita income Arkansas and U.S.
*Round off! Unless you’re dealing with really small numbers, decimal points may not be meaningful. “I’m a big fan of rounding,” Cohen said.
* Portion of whole – For example, at the time of the Million Man March in 1995, a turnout of 1 million black men would have represented 1/12th of all the black men in the country at the time.
Class exercise: Cohen: Think in ratios – construct a ratio on the poverty beat. Memorize common numbers on the beat:
Use the Census Poverty Data: US Ark Counties Poverty ACS_16_5YR_DP03_with_ann-1w6iwss
–In the spirit of “memorizing numbers on your beat,” find three statistics about poverty in this dataset
–Construct a rate or ratio about the number of households earning $15,000 to $24,999 for the U.S., Arkansas, and the counties with the highest and lowest percentages in this category. Remember – “percents are Fractions. Fractions are percents”
Relative Risk
“Black applicants are denied mortgages at twice the rate of whites with similar incomes.”
If 20 smokers per thousand contract cancer, and yet non-smokers have a cancer rate of only 10 per thousand, the relative risk of smoking is 2.
“More than” or “less than” = compute difference between the smokers, an extra step
Example: Relative Risk
Minimum Wage
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-year-brings-minimum-wage-increases-to-18-states-2018-01-01
What is the Minimum Wage Around the Country?
https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm#stateDetails
Exercise: Build a Spreadsheet: Hourly minimum wage for Arkansas & Beyond
Rows:
Hourly minimum wage for Arkansas
Federal hourly minimum wage
$11 / hour
$15 / hour
Columns:
Hourly Wage
Weekly Wage
Monthly Wage
Yearly Wage
Bonus:
Create separate columns adjusted for taxes
Part 2: Monthly Budget
Construct a Monthly Budget For People Living on A Minimum Wage, $11 / hour wage, USA minimum wage.
Besides rent and food, what other expenses would you include?
Homework
Prepare for Bobby Ampezzan, guest speaker for next week.
Reading:
Nickel and Dimed, Ch 2.
Read : “The Holdouts”
Examine this article for how the writer uses detail and sets a scene.
Examine Arkansas Public Media’s website. Look at the background of Bobby Ampezzan, the organization’s funding and how they published two School of Journalism projects:
http://arkansaspublicmedia.org/
http://arkansaspublicmedia.org/post/more-arkansas-veterans-face-suicide-risk-homelessness
http://arkansaspublicmedia.org/post/student-journalists-give-va-good-grade-veteran-homelessness-suicide-cause-alarm
http://arkansaspublicmedia.org/post/housing-loans-difficult-most-northwest-arkansas-minorities
http://arkansaspublicmedia.org/post/ua-database-journalism-digs-home-mortgages-race-discoversits-complicated
Blog: Due 11:59 pm Tuesday Jan 30
In a single blog post, write the following:
- Two questions for Bobby Ampezzan about how Arkansas Public Media works, what experience you need to publish there, etc.
- At least one question or a significant observation on reporting on the working poor from Ch. 2 of Nickel and Dimed.
- List two examples of how the NY Times writer uses detail in The Holdouts. For example, how does she describe cigarettes? How does she describe a sense of community?
- Chart with census income: find your assigned county’s median income, the number of people in $15,000-$24,999 wage band, and the percentage of people in the $15,000-$24,999 wage band, compare to state and national averages. –BONUS: Visualize this in Tableau, upload graphic
- Identify a low-wage worker you intend to interview for the class
Assigned counties:
Andrew – Madison
Katie – Sebastian
Elizabeth – Washington
Aubrey – Benton
Ann – Crawford
Mary Kerr – Carroll
Census Data Download And Cleaning
Census, American Fact Finder
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml
Selected Economic Characteristics DP03 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
30:00 shows how to use the fact finder
https://www.census.gov/data/training-workshops/recorded-webinars/measuring-america.html
Data Cleaning Census spreadsheets.
–Download the view and the data versions of large spreadsheets. One to guide you. the other to do the work.
–Merge / unmerge cells
–Find-Replace
— =CONCATENATE(B3, B4).
Cleaned and download 2011-2015 estimates with detailed poverty metrics
Ark Counties full income search 5-10-17 ACS_15_5YR_DP03
Students assigned geographical location for Census data.
Questions:
–Number and Percentage of Minimum Wage Households?
–Compare to National, State Averages
–Produce basic Tableau chart
Washington: Ann Johnson
Benton: Elisabeth Butler
Madison: Andrew Epperson
Sebastian: Katie Serrano
Crawford: Aubry Tucker
Carroll: Mary Kerr Winters
Optional Material
AP Stylebook Entry on Data Journalism
Data Journalism
Data sources used in stories should be vetted for integrity and validity. When evaluating a data set, consider the following questions:
–What is the original source for the data? How reliable is it? Can we get answers to questions about it?
– Is this the most current version of the data set? How often is the data updated? How many years of data have been collected?
–Why was the data collected? Was it for purposes of advocacy? Might that affect the data’s reliability or completeness? Does the data make intuitive sense? Are there anomalies (outliers, blank values, different types of data in the same field) that would invalidate the analysis?
–What rules and regulations affect the gathering (and interpretation) of the data?
–Is there an alternative source for comparison? Does the data for a parallel industry, organization or region look similar? If not, what could explain the discrepancy?
–Is there a data dictionary or record layout document for the data set? This document would describe the fields, the types of data they contain and details such as the meaning of codes in the data and how missing data is indicated. If the data collectors used a data entry form, is the form available to review? For example, if the data entry was performed by inspectors, is it possible to see the form they used to collect the data and any directions they received about how to enter the data?
Data and the results of analysis must be represented accurately in stories and visualizations. Any limitations of the data must also be conveyed. If one point in the analysis is drawn from a subset of the data or a different data set altogether, explain why this was done.
Use statistics that include a meaningful base for comparison (per capita, per dollar). Data should reflect the appropriate population for the topic: for example, use voting-age population as a base for stories on demographic voting patterns. Avoid percentage and percent change comparisons from a small base. Rankings should include raw numbers to provide a sense of relative importance.
When comparing dollar amounts across time, be sure to adjust for inflation. When using averages (that is, adding together a group of numbers and dividing the sum by the quantity of numbers in the group), be wary of extreme, outlier values that may unfairly skew the result. It may be better to use the median (the middle number among all the numbers being considered) if there is a large difference between the average (mean) and the median.
Correlations should not be treated as a causal relationship. Where possible, control for outside factors that may be affecting both variables in the correlation. Use round numbers where possible, particularly to avoid a false appearance of precision. Be clear about limitations of sample size in reporting on data sets. See the polls and surveys section for more specific guidance on margin of error.
Try not to include too many numbers in a single sentence or paragraph.
Gender and racial diversity in newsrooms. Note the animation
https://googletrends.github.io/asne/?view=0
Narrative Journalism: “The Holdouts”
Examine this article for how the writer uses detail and sets a scene.
Identify specific elements the writer used to set the scene
Examine how she describes cigarettes.
The writer uses the brands to describe cigarettes – what does that do to the story?
Specify the ways that cigarette pricing is discussed
How does the writer convey the notion of stigma?
How does she describe the community of smokers?
How is quitting used as a sub-theme?
What is the purpose of telling the stories of how people came to smoke?