Idea Lab

Spending Stories Makes Progress Toward Fiscal Fact-Checking

by Martin Keegan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

The people have a right to know, but sometimes they're a bit too busy to find out for themselves. Informed citizens have both the need and the desire to know about public affairs, whether public or of a more private nature. For as long as there has been democracy, there's also been a free press, with journalists carrying out the business of matching stories and information with the citizens interested in them. Now there is a firehose of information available, and some of the clearest is about how governments spend people's taxes; this is what Spending Stories concentrates on. A...

• February 13, 2012
• comments

'Spending Stories' to Help Journalists Analyze Spending Data

by Martin Keegan
2011 Knight News Challenge Winner

Data journalism is hard. In particular, when it comes to data about spending, stories hide behind the numbers, veiled with jargon. Holes in the data conceal entire chapters in the great narrative about where the money flows and goes. For many journalists, investing time grappling with tools to analyze spending data is unfruitful or unsexy. Even if they uncover a juicy figure -- an illegal company funneling funds intended for good or an erratic spending trend, for instance -- without context, the numbers can be as useless to a reader as a tour guide with a passion for reciting dates....

• September 23, 2011
• comments