Scrollytelling, open source investigations and the data tools powering your next story

Hey there Benchies!

Here’s to another week of all your favorite dataviz trends, new content and, of course, photos of the week 📷

Here is our featured content this week:

How Grist uses scrollytelling in its story on stolen Indigenous land to engage with its audience

If you haven’t read Grist’s investigative series “Misplaced Trust: Stolen indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system. Climate change is its legacy,” – you should. This powerful investigative series covering the history of land-grants in relation to public universities and its impact on climate efforts and indigenous communities. 

You may already be familiar with “scrollytelling,” a popular storytelling technique that combines text, visuals and interactive elements and has become a tried-and-true technique for engaging online readers. Still, there’s a fine line between using it effectively and letting the style take over the substance. We spoke with Grist’s Maria Parazo Rose and Clayton Aldern to learn more about how they use scrollytelling to enhance a story without losing sight of its core message. Check it out!

The war in Gaza one year later: how open source investigations have helped reveal the costs of war

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters, who killed 1,200 soldiers and civilians and took more than 200 hostages. Most know that the Israeli military response that followed has resulted in the deaths of at least 40,000 in Gaza, most of them civilians, and leveled large swaths of homes, schools, businesses and hospitals, but truly understanding the cost that this war has had is a truly unimaginable mental exercise. Open source investigations are helping us bridge that gap. How? Former Boston Globe design Director and our own University School of Journalism professor (and perhaps our favorite title, faculty advisor of Storybench 🙂) Dan Zedek is here to explain. 

Cool stuff corner: What are we reading this week?

If Trump Wins, Could He Really Use the Justice Department to Jail His Rivals?

Here’s a scary concept made even scarier by how possible it is, or… is it? Find out in this New York Times piece. Using step-by-step interactive visuals, the article breaks down exactly how he could make that happen (or couldn’t, we won’t ruin the surprise 🤐). This is one choose your own adventure that may terrify you, but that you won’t want to miss as we head into November. Take a peek! 

🏠 What’s the rent where you live? The Globe’s new rent tracker keeps tabs all over Eastern Mass.

Rent seems to be a common theme for us this semester, eh? Well, what can we say. Here’s one from the Boston Globe that gives us a bit more insight on the rent situation than, “it goes up” (“and up”) (“and up”) which is basically all we can say at this point. This goes out especially the somewhat less dreaded January rent cycle (though who wants to move in the winter 🥶) might be a useful read. This Boston Globe article is packed with interactive visualizations that allow you to search not only by zipcode, but also by housing type – 1 bed, 2 bed, and so on. Pretty nifty, and of course, terrifying. But knowledge is power amirite? 🏠

From the Vault

🚲 Bike-friendly Boston: These five datasets let journalists track the city's progress 🚲 

As anyone who’s ever dared to bicycle in Boston knows, it’s not for the faint of ❤️. After decades of cars dominating the streets, integrating bike-friendly traffic lanes and traffic patterns has been a slow, ongoing process in Boston. Nevertheless, the city has stated its aim to increase biking four-fold by 2030, and there are a plethora of data sources available to judge how well the city is doing. 

As Somerville-based freelance science journalist Saima Sidik aptly puts it, a bike is a simple contraption, but making cities bike-friendly? Not so easy. Thankfully, this round-up is here to help: we looked into five Boston bike-related data sets, assessed their pros and cons, and looked at how they’ve been used by journalists. The round-up is from 2021 but the tools are still top notch 🚲

35+ data visualization tools from The Washington Post

Here at Storybench, we’re huge fans of not reinventing the wheel. Not to mention learning from the pros– the Washington Post included (obvs). The dataviz buffs out there won’t want to miss this one: We’re breaking down the top 35 dataviz tools that WaPo has been using for building data visualizations. These resources span the entire spectrum of the visualization process, from initial data collection through to the meticulous design of visual representations. And as if that wasn't helpful enough, we’re explaining what differentiates each tool (you’re so welcome). 

These listed also reflect the top skills that visual journalists need, including CARTO, Python, front-end web development, R, illustration and 3D technology – so what are you waiting for? Your new fav tool awaits 👀

PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📷

For you leaf peepers out there, (oh yes, that’s what we call the foliage chasers here in New England 🍁 for those of you not from around here) looking for a weekend getaway? Vermont is an autumn must. Yes you’ll have to mooch off that handy roommate or friend of a friend with a car, but it’s so worth it. Don’t worry, you can pay them back in cider donuts & foliage pics 😉

This spot in particular is a fav; a little hard to find but Google is your friend, just look up “Sleepy Hollow Farm Vermont.” Happy leaf peeping! 🍂🍁

[ 📷: @marian_siljeholm_photography ]

That's all we've got for this week! Thanks for reading, and let us know if there's anything you'd like to see in these newsletters or in our coverage at [email protected].

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