#1: About Data Playground

I’ve never been a journalist, but I love to write. I’ve never taken a statistics class, but I like spreadsheets. I know how to write code, but only barely.

But I really want to be a data journalist.

I love sifting through data to see what sort of stories emerge. I love starting with superficial conventional wisdom and seeing if there’s something more interesting under the surface. And there usually is!

Earlier this week I wondered if close cases on the US Supreme Court were getting more common. So I found the raw data, massaged it in a spreadsheet, and after a few hours of work, this graph appeared:

So it turns out the divided cases are going up. But it seems to be seesawing a bit. And in fact the moving average seems to be headed down slightly from its peak. And what in the world happened in 1969? Interesting!

I find stuff like this fascinating, so I’m going to document what happens as I try to learn more about the world of data journalism. Wish me luck!