Information discussion
notes
The Impact of Computer on the Content of News
by Zhizhong Li
Overview
The arrival in the late 1970s of electronic information storage and retrieval systems made a significant impact on journalistic research methods. These methods have grown to include commercial and governmental online database and database-management software programs. Newer, more complicated information systems have emerged, such as polling software, computer spreadsheets, digitized mapping and statistical analysis packages. These electronic yardsticks and weighing scales have become the powerful tools of computer-assisted journalism.
Add a modem to a computer with a news library researcher skilled in online database searching, and reporters discover information resources unrivaled in scope. With expanded access into electronic files of government data, and by analyzing that data, reporters really become power journalists. The major breakthrough in high-tech journalism came from computerized information systems and the people trained to use them, news researchers and systems specialists.
Computer-assisted journalism encompasses three major areas: online database research, the acquisition and analysis of government databases and the creation and use of staff-developed databases.
An increasing number of newspapers, USA Today being one example, use polls, surveys, online databases and related data-gathering techniques to analyze and report the events and issues concerning their readers. Computers and statistical software packages are central in this type of reporting.
An important element in CAJ is that its analytical thoroughness can make stories definitive.
Modern journalists would find it very difficult to undertake any kind of investigative study without using computers.
How did we do news stories before computer?
Before personal computers and fax machines, journalists relied on other tools to do their jobs: telephones, telegraphs and typewriters were at the top of the list.
History
Beginning in the early 1980s, the small desktop computers that are so common today began to appear on the market. Apple was the pioneer, followed quickly by Radio Shack, Compag, and KayPro, and finally in 1983 by IBM.
From the beginning, IBM made a historic decision to make its designs and architecture public. No licensing agreement was needed to duplicate them. This permitted numerous other manufacturers to make ìclonesî that were IBM compatible.
Dozens of brands came on the market and prices came down quickly. The technology advanced rapidly, and a vigorous software industry spring up to supply user-friendly programs for word processing, spreadsheet analysis, and many other kinds of tasks.
The adoption of the microcomputer within American society is still continuing, but between 1983 and the end of the decade, millions were eagerly purchased by businesses, the government, colleges, public schools, and organizations. In addition, millions of families purchased them for home use.
Along with other Americans, reporters acquired and began to use their own personal microcomputers. At first, reporters used their personal computers for word processing, as replacements for the typewriter. Many brought them to the office to use because management was reluctant to supply them. Eventually, newspapers began to provide them, and as modems and communication software became available, they began to be used in more sophisticated ways. One of the most important was to connect their computers via telephone lines to online databases that could provide rich sources of information to aid in the development of stories. At first, this was done mostly by librarians, but it soon spread to reporters themselves.
How do computers help in the newsroom?
The computer is a tool that helps man multiply, record, analyze and present information at a rate of speed far surpassing anything in the past. It allows us at least the chance of keeping up with the information explosion, because we can see from the curves that as information has become more complex, so have the means of handling it. There are more facts daily to contend with and without the computer we could not possibly keep up suing conventional methods.
The basic tools:
Spreadsheet software is good for analyzing numbers. (salaries, budgets, prices or statistical reports) A spreadsheet can sum columns of numbers quickly, compare them, sort them and chart results.
Database manager is good for keeping track of sources. It works better than a paper Rolodex or index cards. A database manager can group similar kinds of information and link different files through key words or identification numbers. A database manager also can handle many more records than a spreadsheet because spreadsheets generally are limited to 16,000 records.
Statistical software becomes attractive later when a journalist feels more comfortable with numbers and wants to perform more detailed analysis.
Mapping software helps illustrate the points made in a story.
Online resources:
1. E-mail
2. discussion groups on certain subjects
3. database libraries, where sets of records are stored
4. bulletin board, where people can post messages to be read by anyone
who drops by
CAJ as Everyday Journalism
A 1986 computer analysis of the biographical records of 1,542 professional athletes on the rosters of the National Football Leagueís 28 teams by reporters for the Dallas Times Herald shows that 6 of every 10 players failed to earn their college degrees, even though most of these former collegiate stars attended U.S. universities as full-time students for 4 or 5 years.
A computerized study by the Los Angeles Times of 18,315 adults who underwent heart bypass surgery in California in 1986 revealed that the hospitals with the highest death rates did relatively fewer bypass operations than those institutions with lower rates. The study also showed great variations in typical costs for bypass patients ‚ from a high of $59,000 to a low of $16,000. the statewide median charge was $27,700.
A computer analysis by the Washington Post of the stateís $16.8-million scholarship program indicated that students at Marylandís private colleges received a disproportionate share of scholarship money compared with those at public institutions. The records of 25,932 who applied for state scholarships for the 1988-99 school year were examined.