For providing context for breaking news or developing enterprise stories off your beat, databases are your friend. Learn how to develop a data state of mind, find newsworthy data and begin to analyze data sets. These slides, presented by Aaron Mendelson at Fresno NewsTrain, are accompanied by a handout: Data-driven enterprise off your beat. Mendelson, former senior reporter for data and investigations at Southern California Public Radio, started work June 6, 2022, as a reporter for The Center for Public Integrity. For more information on the News Leaders Association's NewsTrain, see https://www.newsleaders.org/newstrain.

1. Developing a data mindset
to improve stories every day
Aaron Mendelson
Southern California Public Radio /
LAist
@a_mendelson

2. Why data?

3. Find important stories

4. Hold the powerful accountable

5. Produce quirky, fun data stories

6. Find key
statistics

7. Be a smarter, more creative watchdog

8. Find new angles

9. Verify what sources tell you

10. Create databases for reference

11. Win prizes
Database of 300 women killed in domestic abuse
2015 Pulitzer
for Public
Service
Post & Courier
in Charleston,
S.C.

12. Get jobs

13. What else can data bring you?
● Unique stories your competitors won’t have
● Good web traffic
● Cool stories

14. Data reporting has a long history
1989
Pulitzer
winner for
investigative
reporting:
Bill Dedman

15. You don’t have to love math
or have a Ph.D. in statistics
Photo by Chris Liverani on Unsplash

16. Many data tools are out there

17. Spreadsheets will take you far

18. Your experiences with data?

19. Our goals today
● Develop a data state of
mind
● Find data 5 ways on any
beat
● Interview data
● Try it out in Google
Sheets
● Pick your data story

20. Developing your data state of mind
● What are the questions to ask
yourself for any story?
● We’ll look for data – and develop
your data state of mind – on your
beat in a few minutes.

21. What is a data state of mind?
“Approaching story ideas with
the mindset that you are
going to quantify or measure
something, rather than just
getting the facts and all sides
of the story.”
— Mary Jo Webster, Star Tribune
Photo by William Warby on Unsplash

22. 5 ways to find data

23. 1. Collect your own

24. 2. FOIA + California Public Records Act
● Study up on state and federal open-information laws
● Use the great resources out there, including
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
● Find experts in your newsroom, academics, attorneys
who can all be allies
● If you don’t have a dozen pending requests, file some
tonight. #FOIAFridays

25. 3. Learn the bureaucracy — forms!

26. 3. Learn the bureaucracy — use
retention schedules as a menu

27. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
3. Learn the
bureaucracy
— befriend
the nerds
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

28. 3. Learn the
bureaucracy —
work
backwards from
public records

29. 4. Googling it … and working on
your data state of mind
● Google advanced search
○ site:www.cde.ca.gov
filetype:xlsx
(click on repeat search)

30. What’d
you find?
site:www.cde.ca.gov
filetype:xlsx

31. What’d
you
find?

32. 5. Get it from independent groups
● Watchdog groups
● Universities
● Libraries
● Think tanks

33. Let’s practice:
interviewing data using
Google Sheets

34. Go to bit.ly/newstrain-fresno
Photo by Tim Hart on Unsplash

35. Make a copy

36. Freeze the top row

37. Sort

38. Who is the highest-paid NBA player?
Photo by Keith Allison on Flickr

39. Next up: Filter

40. Filter for just one team

41. Filter for just one team

42. How do we sort to
get the salaries on
the Lakers, highest
to lowest?

43. Best-paid Laker?
Photo by Tim Shelby on Flickr

44. Filter for the Los
Angeles Clippers
(LAC) salaries, then
sort highest to lowest
Who makes the highest salary?
Paul George, $39,344,970

45. More practice, new spreadsheet
bit.ly/newstrain-budget

46. What’s your data story?
What’s your first step?
Aaron Mendelson
Southern California Public Radio /
LAist
@a_mendelson
Handout and slides: bit.ly/fresnonewstrain
Special thanks to:
● Todd Wallack of
WBUR
● Manuel Torres of
The Marshall Project