NY Times: A Skeptic's Eye, an Analyst's Precision & Journalist's Story Sense

One of several data journalism departments at The New York Times is the computer-assisted reporting team, which holds a unique role. Its reporters wrangle data and documents out of government agencies or off the web, and using them to document or refute tips in investigative reporting. The team's stories have tackled subjects including the proliferation of arbitration clauses, the unequal treatment of black drivers in North Carolina, and political mega-donors. These journalists rarely use data the way the originators expected. It requires a skeptic's eye, an analyst's precision and a journalist's story sense.

Sarah Cohen, the team's editor, will discuss some of the stories (http://www.nytimes.com/by/sarah-cohen) and data sources used by her team, along with the evolution of the specialty from spreadsheet slingers to (sometimes) practitioners of data science techniques borrowed from other fields.

Sarah joined the Times four years ago after serving as the Knight Professor of the Practice in computational journalism at Duke University. She spent most of her career working as an investigative data journalist at The Washington Post, where she earned most major awards including the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting. She is the immediate past president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a 5,000-member educational association for journalists, and teaches investigative skills and data journalism at Columbia University.

Twitter: @sarahcnyt (https://twitter.com/sarahcnyt)

New Website: http://www.dataskeptics.com