The Long History of Data Journalism (1907-2011)

C.W. Anderson College of Staten Island (CUNY) Social Science History Association November 19, 2011 Boston, MA

What reporters know and dont report is still news not from the newspaper point of view, but from the sociologists and novelists. (Lincoln Steffens, 1931)

How Are Practices of Empirical Social Research Changing in the Digital Era?
Journalism as an odd form of empirical social research Digitization New Forms of Journalistic Evidence

Three Generations of Journalism

Media and the Survey Movement Precision Journalism Algorithmic Journalism

What Was the Pittsburgh Survey?

A pioneering socialscience study of urban conditions in Pittsburgh (1907-1908). Funded by the Russell Sage Foundation. One aspect of the larger survey movement, one cornerstone of Progressive Era reform efforts. Relation to later sociology? Relation to journalism?

An Uneasy Hybrid
From the perspective of almost a century, it is possible to see the Pittsburgh Survey as an amalgam of three different strands of social research. (Anderson and Greenwald, 1996)

Relation to Earlier and Later Sociology?

Survey was part of sociologys roots in social reform. Most important jurisdictional conflict in professional history of field is between sociology and social work (not journalism). Mania for documentation & publicity, but limited statistical rigor or analysis.

Relation to Earlier and Later Sociology?

Story told is usually an institutional history (ex: Turner 1996). Survey movement rested on a conception of social manager as social engineer. Success would come from --> A combination of power and publicity. Survey movement failed in its practical goals. And it failed to impact sociology methodologically.

Professionalization (1920s)
Sociology Social Work Policy and Planning Journalism

From the perspective of institutional history, then, the overlapping relationship between journalism, sociology, and reform found in the Pittsburgh Survey was glancing and indirect.

Beyond Institutional History: Empirical Technique and Objects of Evidence

Surveys relation to journalism? Surveys mania for comprehensiveness. Rise of the magazine and conceptions of journalistic deadlines. Lack of statistical analysis versus the rise of the variable.

Fifty Years Later

Philip Myer and the rise of computer assisted reporting. Precision Journalism (1973) Meyers book, which sought to define new forms of journalistic work based on statistical data analysis, became a leading reference point for individuals involved in the computer-assisted reporting movement. (Powers 2011)

Beyond CAR: Big Data and Algorithmic Journalism

Algorithms: A predetermined set of instructions for solving a specific problem in a limited number of steps. Hybrids: Made up of both
Human intentionality / social structure AND Technological affordances

Research (Historical)
Methodological discourse around empirical techniques Comparison: Park and Giddings. Two journalists who became sociologists:
their methodological attitudes towards the survey. their attitudes toward higher journalism.

Comparison: local newspaper coverage of the survey vs. other forms of survey publicity (magazines, etc). Comparison: Institutional discourse within professional journals.
How did Editor and Publisher talk about sociology How did the American Journal of Sociology talk about journalism

Research (Social Science)

An institutional analysis of the Computer-Assisted Reporting (CAR) community
its relation to precision journalism.

Ethnographic analysis of big data journalism projects.

PANDA Project Overview Project