While discussing the new MSc course between ourselves and with others, we have repeatedly come up with the same issues and themes, again and again. As a planning exercise earlier in the summer, we gathered some of these together into a ‘manifesto’. Primarily useful to us to ensure we’re thinking consistently, we’re also making it public to show others what we’re talking about when we say ‘Computational Journalism’.
People may agree or disagree with it, and may want to have their own input into it, and that’s part of what it’s there for. The other reason for its existence is to attempt to show how much further this goes than just journalists using computers to analyse data. This not an aggressive ‘this is exactly where the boundaries lie’ sort of exercise, more of a ‘we think there’s something around about these parts’ kind of statement. We expect this to be an organic document that will change as time goes on.
These are the key themes we’ve used to talk about what’s needed in Computational Journalism:
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Understand Community
Understand that it’s not an audience that you’re dealing with, but a community of which you are an integral part. For the computational journalist this means understanding not only what content they want to receive and interact with, but how to build it, allow others to build upon it, and help the community as a whole to understand it.
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Be Creative
This is a key computational thinking principle – the ability to take existing principles and techniques and apply them creatively to solve a new problem. If that’s not possible, then invent new tools, techniques and principles to solve the problem.
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Be Playful
Another key computational thinking principle that relates closely to the previous theme. What new use can you put that technology to? If you apply this technique in a new way, what happens? It’s important to try and think outside of the usual patterns and workflows to discover new processes and facts.
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Create your environment
This is about learning to be a developer; creating the workflows and processes that allow you to create efficiently and respond quickly. Know the tools and techniques you use to go from idea to research to analysis to creation to output and dissemination. Improve and refine this environment constantly.
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Learn by doing
Learning to code is easier when you learn by doing. Dive into projects and use them as the motivation for learning new languages, frameworks and libraries. Examine other projects and see how they’ve solved problems, adapt what you find, and apply it in your code.
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Be lazy when needed
There’s a reason “Don’t Repeat Yourself” is a popular programming mantra – because it makes sense. Reuse code, reuse tools. Never re-invent the wheel unless it’s absolutely necessary. Make use of others’ libraries if you can.
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Be understood
When communicating with your community it’s obviously important to make sure you’re being understood. Often you’ve been immersed in a project for a long time, you know the details inside and out. Others don’t, and it’s your job to communicate those details as succinctly and clearly as possible. Don’t overlook what seems ‘simple’ to you and assume everyone else will pick up on it. At the same time, don’t overwhelm others with vast oceans of content that drown your message. There’s a balance – find it.
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Learn to write clearly
As above, your community needs you to communicate well. But don’t forget that the code you write is also a part of the conversation. It’s not good enough for your output to be clear, your intermediate processes must be understood too. Best practices and coding principles exist for a reason. It’s not just humans that interact with your outputs, machines need to understand your code too. Sloppy coding and design leads to bugs, errors and inaccuracy.
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See past the numbers
It’s not just about analysing data. Data is important, and without the statistics to prove your statements you have nothing. But never forget the story and the message. Don’t neglect context just because you’ve got a significant p value. Remember that the tools you’re creating have value and are part of the story too.
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Share everything
Whatever you can share, share. Help others to build upon your work. Licence everything. It’s no good releasing code and data without releasing the terms under which others can use it – a codebase with no licence or terms of reuse is no use to anybody. If you’re building on the work of others, it’s only fair to give back. Communities are stronger when everyone can contribute and receive value.
[…] manifesto is online on our main ‘Computational Journalism‘ website with a bit of extra commentary, but I thought I’d upload it here as well. Any comments should probably be directed to the […]