From Space to Story in Data Journalism
- Author: Robert Simmon
- Full Title: From Space to Story in Data Journalism
- Category: articles
- Document Tags: #geospatial
- URL: https://nightingaledvs.com/from-space-to-story-in-data-journalism/
Highlights
- A handful of factors combined with the advent of commercial high-resolution data to help make remote sensing a resource for journalists. In the early 2000s, data from government research satellites became widely available for no cost. This trend culminated in 2008 when the entire archive of Landsat data, which once cost thousands of dollars per image, was released for free. At the same time, advances in computers enabled rapid processing and storage of large datasets. Google’s Earth Engine and other cloud computing services allow types of analysis, especially of time series, that once required supercomputers. Finally, an ecosystem of free and open source software has evolved to supplement the boutique commercial applications that were once required to read the (sometimes esoteric) formats used to store and distribute remote sensing data. (View Highlight)
- Context – imagery that helps readers understand the larger picture or background of a story.
Documentation – imagery that shows an event, like an explosion, or the result of an event, like damage from a natural disaster.Investigation – imagery that is used to draw a novel conclusion (View Highlight)
- Another way to use satellite imagery as a basemap is to remove color (which can be busy and distracting) entirely. In this map of the Gaza Strip Carl Churchill of the Wall Street Journal used a lightened copy of grayscale Landsat data as a background layer. Colored dots and squares, representing different types of water infrastructure, stand out against the muted background – but it’s still clear where they are in relation to the roads and urban areas shown in the satellite imagery. (View Highlight)
- A further role served by satellite data in media is documentation. Imagery of a specific place and time that shows something happening – an unfolding conflict, the impact of a natural disaster, construction, or change on the Earth’s surface. (View Highlight)
- Satellites are an unparalleled tool for showing landscapes before and after an event, or change over time. Landsat, Sentinel-2, and other monitoring satellites have a predictable orbit, and take images from the same perspective and time of day on a fixed schedule. Combined with precise calibration, this allows comparisons over time that can show trends. The sequence of true-color Landsat images below shows the shrinking of California’s Salton Sea after years of drought. Despite being collected over the course of two decades and by two different satellites, the data can be analyzed to accurately show the position of the shoreline (and, with the right analysis, other properties like water quality or the health of the surrounding fields). (View Highlight)
- Different types of imaging satellites have different strengths and weaknesses: in general, the lower the resolution the broader and more regular the coverage. Higher resolution satellites image smaller areas less frequently. In addition, very high resolution satellites (1 meter per pixel resolution and better) must be tasked – instructed to take a picture of a particular spot on Earth at a specific time. It’s important to plan ahead if you are trying to capture an event. (View Highlight)
- To me, the most exciting use of satellite imagery in journalism is for investigative reporting – data as a research tool, used to make discoveries and draw inferences (View Highlight)
- Local knowledge: Data collected from a few hundred miles above the Earth’s surface is often limited when used in isolation. It is far more reliable when combined with in-situ data, augmented by on-the ground reporting, and (perhaps most importantly) informed by the perspective of the people who live in the areas being imaged. (View Highlight)