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The Fundamentals of Data-driven Storytelling
The Fundamentals of Data-driven Storytelling
  • About this course
    • Course Introduction
  • Module 1 - Find
    • 1.1 How to Find Data for Storytelling and journalism
      • Starting with a question
      • Open data portals and platforms
      • Other sources of data
    • 1.2 How to get better data from a Goolge Search
      • Searching for filetypes and formats
      • More on Advanced Search operators
      • Other common Google Search operators
    • 1.3 Sourcing your own data
      • Creating a Google Form for Research
      • Creating a questionnaire with TypeForm
      • Using quizzes and comments as a sources of data
  • Module 2 - Get
    • 2.1 Turning websites and PDFs into machine readable data
      • Scraping data with Tabula
    • 2.2 An introduction to spreadsheet software
      • Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel and Libre Office Calc.
      • Finding your way around a spreadsheet
      • Simple web scraping with Google Sheets
  • Module 3 - Verify
    • 3.1 Can I use this data in my work?
      • Initial steps for verification
      • What do these column headings mean?
  • Module 4 - Clean
    • 4.1 What to do with disorganised data?
      • Why is clean data important?
      • Keep your data organised
      • Cleaning data cheatsheet
  • Module 5 - Analyse
    • 5.1 What is the story within the data?
      • Spreadsheet rows, columns, cells and tabs
        • Spreadsheet formats, forumlas and essential shortcuts
          • Using the VLOOKUP Function
            • Combine Data From Multiple Spreadsheets
    • 5.2 How to turn numbers into stories
  • Module 6 - Visualise
    • 6.1 Ways we visualise data
    • 6.2 Why we visualize Data
    • 6.3 How to visualise data
  • Course Testing & Feedback
    • ⏱️Quick course exam
    • 🎓Extended course exam
    • 📝Survey and feedback
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  1. Module 1 - Find
  2. 1.1 How to Find Data for Storytelling and journalism

Other sources of data

PreviousOpen data portals and platformsNext1.2 How to get better data from a Goolge Search

Last updated 2 years ago

Much of the time, however, you may not be able to find the specific data you need neatly packaged in an open data portal. The South African Department of Basic Education, for example, containing tables of school and learner performance, but only in PDF format.

Many monthly reports, such as this , may also require hunting on central bank or statistics office websites.

Academic reports are also a good source of well sourced data - if you find an article about the subject you are interested in that doesn't include a dataset you think exists, often the authors will may be happy to help.

Commercial sources, such as industry analysts or organisations that maintain databases of information for a specific trade (for example a standardised list of used car prices for vehicle dealerships) may be able to help too. While these would normally charge for access, they may offer some assistance to journalists free of charge - it doesn't hurt to ask.

publishes a lot of reports
financial inclusion report in Kenya