Mashup as a Tool For Journalism

The mashup, an outlet for several streams of information combined in a new interface, can be an incredibly useful reporting tool for journalists.

Instead of viewing statistics and data as separate entities, where they are sometimes yanked completely out of context, a mashup can help create a fuller portrait of the subject of a story. 

EveryBlock is a great example. The site feeds in crime statistics, real estate listings (via Trulia) and business reviews (via Yelp) in a clean, well-organized format broken down by ward, neighborhood or ZIP code. The different feeds combine to give a snapshot of the neighborhood or ward-useful for someone looking to move to Chicago, and especially useful for a journalist reporting news and could be instrumental in helping evaluate trends and patterns regarding safety, economic health etc. 

DataMasher, provides a forum for users to combine sets of Federal Government data, imported from sites like Data.gov, into visualizations. As I mentioned in my post on FLYP media, I think this is another great way interactive social media is helpful to people with different learning styles: some people will benefit greatly from having a visual representation to accompany a verbal explanation of a trend.

Other kinds of mashups can play a big role in one of the most important factors of good reporting: accuracy. Not only is the journalist better able to view the data in context and to draw a more "objective" conclusion from the evidence, the reader can also view this data and either dispute, expound upon or reinforce the journalists report. 

Part of building a good story is making sure that facts, details and statistics support your point. With news expected in units closer to real time every day, it is increasingly important to be able to quickly gather, organize and report on data. Mashups assist with this process greatly by putting easily accessible information from multiple sources in one place. 

Trendsmap, a real time tracker of twitter trends by location, is a great way for reporters to find stories. People are likely to talk about big events and happenings, as well as points of interest, entertainment and culture. Trendsmap visually demonstrates how many tweets are going out about a particular topic by making the most popular topics huge and the less buzz-worthy topics smaller.

Trendsmap could even be a handy means of finding sources. People tweeting about a particular topic are likely to have first-hand knowledge concerning hyper local and local news and could be valuable additions to stories.