Data Journalism Backup Site

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Feb 16 Class

by | Feb 16, 2017 | Daily-Class, Spring_2017

Fun with Old Newspapers. Excerpt from New York Evening Post, 1893

http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/

NPR Data Project on Veterans and Health Care

1:30 pm, My office, Room 109D

NPR is holding a webinar on data journalism and a project they did about veteran’s administration data.

 

Colleagues –

I wanted to invite you to join me, Quil Lawrence and Stephan Bisaha of NPR News on a webinar this Thursday, February 16 at 2:30pm ET/11:30am PT to discuss the data-driven investigative resources available as part of our recent reporting around “Hiring at VA Medical Facilities,” and share hands-on guidance on using this data for your local reporting.

The investigation of government data by NPR and a team of Member station reporters turned up some serious questions about how tax money is being spent on veterans’ health care, and whether the well-publicized problems with VA medical facilities are truly being addressed. The reporting by NPR’s Quil Lawrence and Member station reporters Steve Walsh of KPBS and Patricia Murphy of KUOW aired on Tuesday, January 31 on Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Now we’d like to encourage your newsroom to build on this coverage. NPR has studied this data for the past six months and we are making it available for locally-focused reporting and analysis.

Using this data, you will be able to answer some of these questions for veterans in your listening area: Did your VA get more doctors or nurses under the Vets Choice program? Have wait times for your vets improved? The data will help frame what’s happening where you live.

We encourage you to have someone in your newsroom join the webinar to learn more.  We look forward to discussing the project with you this Thursday.

Bruce

Compare 2014-2010 Crime in Arkansas

More on how the =vlookup function is useful. Examples end at 2:30

This exercise will involve downloading, cleaning and comparing FBI crime data from 2010-2014

You will use a new command, VLOOKUP, to compare the cities in the two years sop you have an accurate comparison
—=vlookup is “find and replace” on steroids
You will use Text to Columns as a way to match disparate data sources
Step 1: Download FBI UCR Crime Data, one year, all Arkansas localities and all categories, 2014 and 2010
Step 2: Combine the 2010 data in the same workbook as the 2014 Data
Create Data Biography
Save as an Xlsx workbook
Step 3: Four Corners Test on the 2010-2014 data.
Do they match? How are they different?
Step 4: Fill in missing population data on 2014 Crime Data
Video: =vlookup and text to columns to insert population data
–Copy population data, 2014 Census Figures, into a new tab from this table:
–Filter population to blanks in 2014 Crime data
A) Make sure the names match.
TEXT TO COLUMNS: Split the names out in columns.
        DATA: TEXT TO COLUMNS. How many columns? Column per word. Create four new columns
        Clean up Fort Smith
     —DEFINE MATERIAL TO SPLIT UP
     —DATA | TEXT TO COLUMNS
     —DELIMITED then select SPACE
     —Replace contents with selected cells
     **–Label the new columns: Agency, Agency1, Agency2
    **—-Clean up stray blank columns
Do the same with the Census:
Lable Geography1, Geography2
B) Use =vlookup to replace missing population values
    —Formula Bullder, Select =vlookup
   — Lookup value is cell B11 (Benton)
  — table_array is ‘Census 2010-14’!B5:M79
  MAKE SURE YOU DEFINE THE POPULATION DATA FROM THE Geography1 Column (“Benton”)
Repeat for 2010 crime data
Step 5: Use Vlookup to compare the lists of cities in 2014 and 2010.
    –=vlookup Select City cell
     –Select range for search on other data table. Start With the
      –Select the numbered column to search
      –False for an exact match
Bring the formula down, see which cities don’t match
Step 6: Edit the 2010 and 2014 crime data so they have the same cities
Create copies of the 2010 sheet. Edit it
Create copy of the 2014 sheet, edit it.
Step 7: Copy the 2010 heading and violent crime rate into a new tab
Copy the 2014 headings and violent crime rate into a new tab
Run =vlookup to make sure both match
Step 8: Calculate the absolute difference in the 2014 and 2010 violent crime rates
Sort desceding
Crime went up in which area since 2010?

Homework

Read Ch. 6, Chapter6TheTruthfulArt

Introduction to Tableau

 

tableau-logo-use-this-one

Below is a website (landing page link) for your upcoming class – please forward this to your students. Each student should go to the landing page to download Tableau and enter the key noted below. This key will activate enough licenses for your entire class for the duration of the course
— Download the latest version of Tableau
— Desktop Key: TD6F-96D4-8710-9D22-5048
— Instructions: Click on the link above and select Get Started. On the form, enter your university email address for “Business email”; and under “Organization”, please input the name of your school.

Introduction and Demonstration of Tableau

–Video
http://www.tableau.com/learn/tutorials/on-demand/getting-started

Tutorial
Dataset for the Tutorial:
global-superstore-orders-2016
getting_started_transcript