Ran across a fascinating how-to provided by some New York Times reporters and graphics artists about a recent info-graphic project the paper did. The Times took data about movie rentals from Netflix and figured out the most popular titles by zip code for New York. In taking a look at the different movie preferences in each New York neighbourhood, New Yorkers are able to learn a bit more about themselves and their own cultural preferences, the Times avers.
The data was presented in the hard-copy version of the Times and was also packaged up as an online interactive feature.
For those in my line of work, this is pretty cool stuff and a great example of CAR at work. CAR stands for Computer-Assisted Reporting. If you're a journalist that's into CAR, you use spreadsheets and relational database software to crunch through data to find new stories and find new angles on stories. I was an early adopter of spreadsheet use in my reporting — anyone remember VisiCalc? — and have volunteered to lead CAR seminars and workshops at various journalism conferences.
But I'm really just a piker compared to some of the CAR superstars in Canada like the Ottawa Citizen's Glen McGregor. Glen is not only a geek's geek but he's a helluva reporter, with a good sense of being able to see the story rise out of the datasets he collects in the way some kids collect hockey cards.
Seeing the NYT piece reminded me about Glen's good work and that more in the country ought to know about it. One of my favourite projects that he did was in early 2008 when he looked at the reports prepared by federal inspectors of the country's gas station pumps. His analysis found that one in 20 failed the government inspection and consumers were either not getting the gas they paid for or, less likely, getting more gas than they paid for. Glen's piece forced then Industry Minister Jim Prentice to respond and improve consumer protection at the pumps. Over the last few days, Glen's been writing some stomach-turning pieces about restaurants in the nation's capital, all of which started with the analysis of a monster data set:
- Special report: Food for thought: One-in-four Ottawa restaurants had ‘critical deficiencies’
- Critical deficiencies found at 42 per cent of shawarma eateries
- Cockroaches, mice rampant at Chinatown eateries: Half of restaurants found ‘non-compliant’
The Toronto Star did something similar a few years in a project led by another CAR star, Rob Cribb, and the revelations in that project changed a lot of things and won the Star a pile of awards. I hope Glen has some similar success.