VCU Data Journalists

04/14/2020

Six stories produced by our Data Journalism & Visualization class last fall won awards in the Society of Professional Journalists' 2019 Mark of Excellence competition for Region 2 (mid-Atlantic states). They included:

Newspapers

Breaking News Reporting (Large) 10,000+ Students

Winner: Hashmi’s election draws racist comments on Facebook – by Hannah Eason and Sravan Gannavarapu, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by AP)

General News Reporting (Large) 10,000+ Students

Winner: In one VA city, 93 opioid pills a year for every resident – by Andrew Riddler and Sravan Gannavarapu, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by AP)

Online

Online News Reporting

Winner: R**e cases in Virginia often go unsolved – by Anna Madigan, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by NBC12)

Finalist: As va**ng illnesses mount, officials warn of dangers of e-cigarettes – by Georgia Geen, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by NBC12)

Finalist: Navy veteran recalls his encounter with D.C. snipers – by Georgia Geen and Pedro Coronado, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by the Prince William Times)

Online In-Depth Reporting

Winner: S*x ed is key to reducing teen pregnancy, advocates say – by Hannah Eason and Emma North, Virginia Commonwealth University (Data Journalism; distributed by CNS; published by the Prince William Times)

You'll find links to the stories at https://vcucns.com/awards/

03/04/2020

Here are all the presentations for the "Year in CAR: Local Innovation" panel at the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting's conference in New Orleans. Hannah Eason and Sravan Gannavarapu are up first -- discussing their data analysis of hateful comments directed at Sen. Ghazala Hashmi on Facebook.

Students in my data journalism class used this tool the day after the first Muslim was elected to the Virginia Senate. During their election night coverage, the students, Hannah Eason and Sravan Gannavarapu, noticed a lot of racist and xenophobic comments posted to news stories on Facebook about Gha...

03/04/2020

Hannah Eason and Sravan Gannavarapu, students in The Robertson School of Media & Culture at VCU, will discuss a data-driven story they wrote last fall at , a data journalism conference in New Orleans, on Thursday. Here's a sneak peek of their slideshow. (The students won't be at the conference in person, but Mechelle Hankerson is going to facilitate a remote presentation.)

Scraping social media Hannah Eason & Sravan Gannavarapu Virginia Commonwealth University

12/10/2019

Thanks for the shoutout, VCU, about our new undergraduate course on Data Journalism & Visualization.

Students in a data journalism class are producing stories being picked up by The Washington Post, The Associated Press and other publications across the country.

10/12/2019

Why are boys far more likely than girls to drop out of high school?

https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/by-the-numbers-schools-with-the-best-and-worst-graduation-rates-in-virginia/

Three small rural school districts had 100% graduation rates this year, and the Brunswick County, Manassas and Richmond school systems had the state’s lowest graduation rates, according to data rel…

10/12/2019

The low statewide crime rate obscures a troubling fact: Petersburg, Richmond and a handful of other cities in Virginia have murder rates well above the national average. (Thanks for picking up our story, AP.)

https://www.apnews.com/4b62ec4728454e0186dc5139937f5dd9

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia had the fourth lowest violent crime rate and 13th lowest property crime rate in the United States last year, according to new data from the FBI. The...

10/05/2019

Virginia's statewide unemployment rate is low. Even so, 27 cities and counties had unemployment rates at or above the national average in August.

https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/uU3Ib/1/

Compared with a year ago, unemployment dropped in 124 of Virginia's cities and counties. But 22 localities still had unemployment rates above the national average.

09/27/2019

Among the news outlets that picked up this exclusive by VCU data journalist Patricia Cason was the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, which has one of the highest proportions of same-sex marriages in Virginia.

https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/state/of-marriages-in-va-have-been-same-sex-since-legalization/article_a7ac9c6e-ffbc-5162-adc7-7ecb935e84cf.html

Between 2014 and 2018, Charlottesville saw relatively high proportions of same-sex marriage — about 1 in 15.

09/12/2019

A data-driven scoopette with good news about the poverty level in Virginia.

https://www.wvtf.org/post/virginia-s-poverty-rate-drops-101-new-data-shows /0

Virginia’s poverty rate has fallen by a full percentage point, to about 10%, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

09/11/2019

More evidence that data skills are now essential for every journalist. Maybe we can host an IRE workshop at VCU’s Robertson School of Media and Culture.

College educators and students will receive investigative and data training through the new IRE on Campus program, which will include special opportunities for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

09/06/2019

Our first story of the fall semester, with a data nugget about the number of homes at risk from storm surge:

https://patch.com/virginia/richmond/virginians-face-power-outages-flooding-hurricane-dorian

08/28/2019

https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/08/every-crime-map-needs-context-this-usc-data-journalism-project-aims-to-scale-it/

"When we do a story looking at 18 different commuting routes, we’ve created 18 different stories, in a way — we’ve created a story with 18 distinct audiences."

08/27/2019

We're back after a hiatus. We have about 20 journalism students -- both undergrads and graduate students -- learning data journalism this semester. It's an in-demand skill set, and likely will get a pop-culture boost from this upcoming movie based on a data-driven expose by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

https://www.icij.org/blog/2019/08/the-laundromat-a-list-movie-based-on-the-panama-papers-to-premiere-at-venice/

The film, starring Meryl Streep, will premiere at the upcoming film festival, considered a key launchpad for Academy Awards’ success next February.

08/26/2019

08/26/2019

12/20/2017

Of the 290 nursing homes in Virginia, 72 have faced penalties totaling more than $4.7 million since 2014, according to data posted online by Medicare, the government agency that provides health care for elderly Americans.

http://altdaily.com/some-dismal-health-inspection-ratings-for-local-nursing-homes-as-fines-across-commonweatlh-mount/

When we think about where our loved ones will spend their golden years, most of us don’t picture understaffed facilities employing known abusers, or dementia patients warehoused, mistreated and helpless to advocate for themselves. By Gillian Bullock and Diana DiGangi for Capital News Service But

12/20/2017

In the coming years, the U.S. will face an unprecedentedly large elderly population – people more prone to dementia-related diseases.

http://www.localkicks.com/politics/down_in_richmond/as-the-population-grays-alzheimers-and-dementia-threat-looms

Over the next eight years, the number of Virginians with Alzheimer’s disease will swell by nearly 36 percent, to about 190,000, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

12/10/2017

Here are Sean Boyce's charts comparing VCU to other schools in their graduation rates for student-athletes:

https://infogram.com/graduation-success-rates-for-vcu-1hkv2njwl0lp6x3