By Melanie Morales
The chapter was insightful and though it didn’t scream super-surprising things at me, it stated what we need to know as novice data journalists and puts it into perspective the unique elements that data storytelling should have.
Even the readings before were useful to know going into gathering data since, after your project is complete, you have the option to publish or open up your data for the great good. I like how this shows a community of data miners coming together to grow this emerging field.
It was also encouraging to see that those without a computer science background can take a whack at the whole news app project and make interesting data-driven work. Though we are in the data skills class and may or may not be in the digital media track, all of the readings basically say “with some dedication, anyone can do this!” and for me, personally, I love that perspective.
The “serving the user” and not the other way around is also a good piece to keep at the forefront and goes back to what journalism is all about. That and making the content extend beyond the news but address real-world concerns/issues/topics along with providing a public service allowed me to final nail down what I would like my final project to be.
By having a visual of the Texas State campus map, I would like to make it where when hovered over the buildings, it populates how many graduate students are enrolled and the degrees award in the past recorded years. I like the layout of the Poll Tracker and think this best suits what I’m going for. This information can be found here. The information could be used to show how graduate studies has grown and changed in areas over the past years and also provide prospective and current students as well as the community more information on the topic.
Side note: The tip from the reading of “use small multiples to quickly orient yourself in a large dataset” made me think of this really interesting video. Maybe you have seen it? Check out If The World Were 100 People | Good Data.