Course Code and Name: MSJ 3253 Data Journalism
Project Name:Data Story with Visualization
Project Date: Spring 2022
Project Description:In this course, I was assigned to create a Data Story using MS Excel, Google Data Studio and other third-party relevant applications.
For the data story project, I had to collect data from various sources and remove the unnecessary data from there. Then I created a news story with the required data and converted the data into visuals. Through this, I was able to create a complete data story. The tools used in this project are Table Capture, MS Excel, Data wrapper, and Google Data Studio. While doing this project the main challenge that I faced was using the ‘stats guru’ feature of ESPNcricinfo as it requires manual filtering. I had to put the queries by understanding what I needed. There have been quite a few times that I had to retry and alter the queries to extract the data properly as I expected. Then bringing these data after cleaning processes, I had to face some minor delays and issues that I eventually overcame by trying alterations or making changes to the data style. Whatever this challenge and eventually overcoming this and fulfilling the project have already boosted me in that I can now make any data stories.
Project Justification:The project making a Data Story in Data Journalism course teaches an essential skill for journalists these days as audiences are more driven into data-driven stories. The project’s significance lies in its practicality: it showcases the power of data-driven storytelling in sports journalism, specifically in analyzing Bangladesh cricket’s decade-long performance. It took me through how to gather and show info in a clear way using programs like Excel, Flourish and Google Data Studio. Learning to extract data from places like ESPNcricinfo or any other open data source helps journalists find really intricate details for their stories. Also, the project required cleaning up data from huge datasets and presenting it in a way to makes it easier to understand, which is key for good journalism. Overall, this project teaches that knowing how to employ data for producing interesting and accurate news stories that truly resonate with today’s audience.
Data story: https://townsmandaily.wordpress.com/2022/07/05/a-data-reminiscences-of-bangladesh-cricket-in-last-10-years/
Learnings and Outcomes (Self-reflection):
- Learned the basics of Data Journalism.
- Excelled in using various tools for data collection and visualization such as Google Data Studio, Table Capture, MS Excel, Flourish, and Data Wrapper.
- Acquired skills for data extraction from different sources such as structured and unstructured PDFs, websites, sports databases etc.
- Learned to craft multiple insightful visualizations for complex cricket data.
- Developing data analysis skills using MS Excell and Google Sheets.
- Gained confidence in handling and presenting intricate data sets.
- Grown an interest in pursuing further studies in Data Journalism.