1801 newsletter: Dark data, megafarms, and how public transport divides Berlin society

It’s been a week of ups (trips to the south coast, films about cats) and downs (Iranian visas are only to be found in the Fifth Circle of Hell, it seems). Still, the world of interactive journalism has been chugging along nicely. Check out my five picks of the week below. And if you are not a subscriber yet, then I suggest you amend this grievous error by visiting this email subscription link. If you should already be a subscriber — you know who you are — then be warned, because I probably know your email address.
END OF THE LINE

The Berliner Morgenpost interactive team is a truly delightful collective, creating bold, inventive work. Comparable to the Guardian US team, before its sad recent demise. Morgenpost do particularly great work when combining transport data with demographic analysis, as in their latest interactive (see also their M29, which partly inspired my interactive about homeless people sleeping on night buses in London). The leading animation is beautiful and somewhat reminiscent of the marathon piece they did. The analysis shows what sort of people take different types of transport in Berlin — their immigrant background, voting behaviour, if they are a tourist. The results are very interesting. It’s weird to think that the Evening Standard are probably their British counterpart — but there is no interactive investment with the latter.
ANIMAL FARM

The London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has continued digging into the farming industry with a story about the rise of “megafarms” across the UK. There are some 800 that meet the US mega farm (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) definition across the country, the biggest housing more than a million chickens, 20,000 pigs or 2,000 dairy cows. An animated map by Charles Boutaud shows the surge from 0 permits for intensive farming in 2002 to the total of 1418 this year (a rather Hitchcockian version using chicken emoji is circulating too). The Bureau’s relatively-new website is also showing off some parallax scrolling, which I remain a fan of despite some detractors. Meanwhile, the Bureau Local partnered with a number of local newspapers to disseminate the story, making the front pages of some.
DARK DATA

Speaking of local journalism, The Bristol Cable, a subscription-based publication that is savvy in data analysis and audience development, are leading the way. A recent feature about online political advertising, which has been a growing issue ever since Obama was elected in 2008, is a case in point. “Dark ads” are the sort of targeted adverts that work using the vast amount of information that Facebook has on us. Using the chrome extension Who Targets Me?, The Cable crowdsourced data on the political adverts that readers were shown. Labour was much more successful in its campaigning, as highlighted by a number of good visualisations made with Tableau.
THE FALL

Something’s got to give. Donald Trump’s promise of 4% annual economic growth does not tally with his desire to cut immigration. An excellent analysis by ProPublic, who are the American equivalent of the aforementioned Bureau, where non-profit investigations teams are far more prevalent, picks through the numbers. Their answer? To reach that 4%, the US should take in about eight million net immigrants per year (the current level is about one million). So much for the wall. A slider allows you to adjust the immigration levels and see the impact on GDP. There are some custom buttons too, showing the impact of deporting all illegal immigrants, for example (a $7.9 trillion loss). Moody’s Analytics, the independent economics firm that carried out the analysis, points out that this would be “historically unprecedented”. There’s hope yet.
SLIDE INTO MY NEGOTIATIONS

The public are sick of reading about it and journalists are sick of writing about it, but Brexit, one of the most complex political negotiations the country has ever taken part in, has only just begun. How to keep track of it all? The Guardian’s answer leans heavily toward the messaging and chat-based approach. For each topic such as citizens’ rights, trade, and security, there’s a separate channel, showing the key updates in message form — little photos of key players like Angel Merkel and David Davis, replete with a heavy smattering of emoji. It’s very well thought out, and could be a resource people return to regularly.
FOOD4THOUGHT
I have a story about betting addiction out today. And it’s always a bit of a gamble when I try to make some bread.
That’s all for this week. Please tell me if there’s something you’ve done that I should check out. I love to discover. Likewise, if there’s anything you like or don’t like about this newsletter.
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