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I think access to data is key. One of the hardest challenges is dealing -- in an empirical manner -- with paper documents, or anything that doesn't come in a spreadsheet...which, until relatively recently, was the norm of information distribution. But I think we (as a society) are just beginning to make use of data, in terms of analysis and general computational thinking. To go back to the domain of journalism...Aron Pilhofer, who heads the interactive news team at the New York Times, said that in "one day...we can teach you the skills that if mastered would allow you to do 80 percent of all the computer-assisted reporting that has ever been done" (http://knight.stanford.edu/life-fellow/2012/times-editor-say...)...I think this is still the case. As an example, you don't have to go back much further than last year's Public Service Pulitzer...probably my favorite winner in modern times: http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2013-Public-Service The reporters took a sensational story (off-duty cops being caught on YouTube egregiously breaking the speed limit) and opted to do an empirical analysis. But of course, what they were trying to find -- cops who broke the law by speeding -- was inherently non-existent, in terms of public records (because it is the cops who determine whether the law is broken). So instead, the reporters requested toll booth records, which recorded the passing through of each cop car. Taking distance divided by time, they were able to prove so convincingly how egregious the abuse was that Florida police stations pretty much rolled over and immediately repented. Besides whatever database they used to hold the data, the analysis here is literally elementary level. This is not to say that the reporters' had it easy (they still had to do all the footwork, interviews, confrontations, and fact-checking, among other things), but it just goes to show you how many important stories are out there, in every jurisdiction, that only need someone who cares enough to do some counting and arithmetic. I kind of love the Public Service awards because of how they recognize these relatively non-sexy, but incredibly important stories done by determined and clever journalists. |