the transition to digital journalism

One very effective way to add depth to a particular topic on an online news site is to include interactive databases and map mashups that people can use to explore subjects on their own according to their particular interests.

Databases are popular with Internet users - "40% of adult internet users have gone online for raw data about government spending and activities," according to a survey published in April 2010 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Databases have proven very popular at news sites, with people spending large amounts of time on news sites exploring the information in the databases.

• The Texas Tribune reports that a third of the traffic to its website is for its online databases.
• Mission Local, a local news site run by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, created a restaurant health inspections map that had more than 8,700 page views the day it was posted - more than 51 percent of the total pageviews at the site that day. City inspection data for the map was supplied by the EveryBlock project.
• The Data Blog run by the Guardian in Great Britain is one of the more popular features on the publication's website.
• An interactive census map produced by NorthJersey.com in February 2011 led the news site in page views for an entire month.
• Gannett newspapers have been pioneers in adding databases to their local websites, as part of their Information Center online strategy. See MediaShift's October 2008 story on Gannett's Information Centers strategy. 

Check out these other examples of databases and map mashups at online sites.

Databases and map mashups allow people to customize data to their own interests and explore it to develop their own analyses of what the data means.

Providing people with a place to post comments on the data then can lead reporters to do stories exploring trends readers have identified in the data, correct erroneous conclusions, or provide context for a better understanding of the raw data.

Readings and Resources

• Databases help you become the source for answers - Steve Buttry, API Now, 8/13/2007. Describes the huge popularity of online databases at many different newspaper websites.
• Gannett Pushes for More Tech Hires, Data Centers, Niche Sites - MediaShift, 10/10/2008
• The fascinating world of forgotten information: News Web sites unlock practically obscure public records - American Society of News Editors, 2/2/2010. Comprehensive report by ASNE on how news sites are making use of online public records and other databases.
• Government data: People love it, say Pew, Texas Tribune - Amy Gahran, News Leadership 3.0 blog, Knight Digital Media Center, 4/29/2010
• T-Squared: The Six-Month Stats - Texas Tribune, 5/10/2010
• Lone Star Trailblazer: Will the Texas Tribune transform Texas journalism? - Columbia Journalism Review, July 2010. See the "Is Data Journalism?" section
• Our data journalism is opening up a world of information - Guardian, 7/6/2010
• Wooing more mobile users with interactive databases - Amy Gahran, News Leadership 3.0, Knight Digital Media Center, 7/6/2010
• How The Guardian is pioneering data journalism with free tools - Nieman Journalism Lab, 8/5/2010
• Mapping Traffic’s Toll on Wildlife - NY Times, 9/12/2010
• Journalism in the Age of Data - Geoff McGhee, Stanford Knight Journalism Fellow, 2009-2010; a video on data visualization as a storytelling medium produced as part of the fellowship program.
• 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - Hans Rosling's video on his data visualization of historical income and lifespan data for countries of the world
• Texas Tribune databases drive majority of site’s traffic, help citizens make sense of government data - Poynter, 3/2/2011
• Beyond the crime scene: We need new and better models for crime reporting - Nieman Journalism Lab, 6/13/2012
• When Maps Shouldn’t Be Maps - Matthew Ericson, 10/14/2011
• When police wouldn’t release a gang map, Toledo Blade crime reporter drew her own - Kelly McBride, Poynter, 5/2/2013

Presentation Links - Digital Transformation

• Texas Tribune - online databases
• Dollars for Docs - ProPublica
• Data Blog - The Guardian
• NorthJersey.com interactive census map
• Gangs of Toledo Interactive Map - Toledo Blade
• Mission Local - restaurant health inspections
• EveryBlock
• Oakland's Food Divide - Oakland North

Presentation Links - Picking Media

• Gapminder
• Oakland's Food Divide - Oakland North
• How Different Groups Spend Their Day - New York Times
• History of Las Vegas - Las Vegas Sun
• 1969 - The New York Times
• Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster - USA Today
• Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster - evolution of the graphic - USA Today
• Dollars for Docs - ProPublica