Dataharvest 2024 - the European Investigative Journalism Conference

Nine times out of ten (like many other numbers, this statistic is made up) when something in data looks newsworthy there is actually a quite mundane explanation. That headline grabbing outlier is probably a typo, this sudden downturn is caused by a change of measuring method. A thousand fold increase of something? Double check whether someone has misplaced a decimal point. This presentation is about the ‘missing link’ between finding a data source and publishing a story. With practical examples- no programming needed - we will discuss common pitfalls in interpreting numbers and strategies to bulletproof your data analysis. After attending this session participants will be able to look more critically at data, having practiced sifting through the fool’s gold and getting to the real story Some experience of spreadsheets is desirable but not required.