The New England First Amendment Coalition recently launched a monthly educational series featuring short, practical lessons on journalism and the First Amendment.
The goal of the program — called “30 Minute Skills” — is to provide reporters and other citizens knowledge they can use immediately in newsgathering, data collection, storytelling, and other areas of journalism and First Amendment law.
This is the second of two introductory lessons on cleaning datasets obtained online or through public records requests. Before attending this class, it’s recommended that you first view Data Cleaning 101.
By attending this second lesson, you will:
– Advance your data cleaning skills with OpenRefine and other free tools.
– Learn how to import dirty data from websites and increase memory in OpenRefine.
– Build your facet and clustering skills.
– Learn how to split and merge data.
Requirements Prior to Class:
– Download OpenRefine (free) software.
https://openrefine.org/download.html
– Have Access to Google Sheets.
https://www.google.com/sheets/about/
– Download a sample dataset.
http://www.nefac.org/files/2021/01/Dirty-Campaign-Finance-Data.csv
Taught by Maggie Mulvihill, a veteran investigative and data journalist, journalism educator, news entrepreneur and impassioned defender of our right to know. Her data journalism students have been honored with 10 regional or national journalism awards since 2011 as well as being named finalists for the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists. An attorney, Mulvihill is co-founder of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.