How to: Excel for journalists

Excel for journalists

Part 1: analyze your data

Copyright - Hille van der Kaa www.deuitgeeffabriek.nl

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool for analyzing data and discovering

interesting patterns.

Journalists can use it to:

• sort data • filter data • calculate data • make pivot tables (and so many other things I will not discuss in this presentation…)


• In this case, we want to analyze the number of stolen bikes and cars in five different cities and two provinces in The Netherlands.

• Therefore we start with sorting the number of stolen bikes and cars per city.

• All numbers are fictional….


Please enter these fictional data in your spreadsheet


• Excel organizes your data in table form, with rows and columns.

• The columns (which are labeled A, B, C…) list the variables (in this case city, province, bike, car) Typically, the first row holds the names of the variables.

• The rest of the rows are for the individual records or cases being analyzed. Each cell (like B2) holds a piece of data.


Sort data

• In journalism, we usually are interested in extremes like: the least, the most, the biggest or the smallest.

• Excel helps you to look for this by sorting the data into a revealing order.

• In this case, we would like to sort the data in descending order of the total number of stolen bikes, with the most crime-ridden city at the top.


• There are two methods of sorting. The first method is quick and can be used for sorting by a single variable.


Put the cursor in the column you wish to sort and then click the

Z-A button.


Now you have the number of stolen bikes in descending order


Beware!

• Put the cursor in the column, do not select the column letter (C, in this case) and then sort.

• Doing that will sort only the data in that column, and disorder your data!


• The other method of sorting is useful when you want to sort by more than one variable.

• For instance, suppose we wish to sort the crime data first by provinces in alphabetical order, and then by “bike” in descending order within each city.


To do this, look for the toolbar, click on “Data” and then “Sort”…


choose the variables by which you wish to sort. Then click “OK”.


Now you have the number of stolen bikes in descending order per province


Filter data

• Sometimes you want to examine only particular records from a large collection of data.

• In this case, suppose we only wish to see the records from Middelburg. For this, you can use Excel’s Filter tool.


On the toolbar, go to “Data…Filter”. Small buttons will appear at

the top of each column.


Click on the button on the cities column and choose Middelburg from the list.


Now you have filtered the results from Middelburg.


• More complicated filters are possible. For instance, suppose you wish to see only records in which “bike” is greater than or equal to 3.

• ‘Undo’ your previous filter by clicking on above your toolbar and…..


click on the bike filter button and choose “Number Filter”….


Now enter ‘3’….


…. and you will only see the cities with 3 or more stolen bikes.


Calculate data

• Excel has many built-in functions useful for performing math functions.

• For instance, assume that we wish to calculate the total number of bike crimes in all the provinces.


Go to the bottom of Column C, skip a row, and then enter this

formula in Cell C9: =SUM(C2:C7).

The equals sign (=) is necessary for all functions. The colon (:) means “all the numbers from Cell C2 to Cell C7”.


Now you have the sum of the numbers in C2 to C7


• Often you will want to do a calculation on each row of your data table.

• For instance, you might want to calculate the crime rate (the number of crimes per 100,000 population), which would let you compare the crime problem in cities of different sizes.


Please enter the (fictional) number of population in your datasheet


Create a new variable called “Crime Rate” in Column F. Then, in

Cell F2, enter this formula: =(C2/E2)*100000

Notice that there are no spaces and no thousands separators used in the formula


This divides the total crimes by the population, then multiplies the result by 100,000. This is your crime rate.


Click on the column and ‘format cells’ to adjust the number of decimal places (2) if you like.


Now you have the crime rate with two decimals.


• Excel has a way to rapidly copy a formula down a column of cells. To do that, you move the cursor (normally a white cross) to the bottom right corner of the cell containing the formula.


When it is in the right spot, the cursor will change to a small black cross. At that point, you can double-click and the formula will copy down the column

until it reaches a blank cell in the column to the left.



You can do the same to the right


Now, if we sort by ‘crime rate bike’ in descending order, we see

the cities with the worst bike crime problems:


Excel has various functions that can be used in similar ways

You can add, subtract, multiply or divide

by using the symbols + - * and /.

=AVERAGE – will give you the arithmetic mean of a column or row of numbers

=COUNT – counts the number of items there are in a column or row

=MAX – to look for the largest value in a column or row

=MIN – to look for the smallest value in a column or row


pivot table

• A pivot table creates an interactive cross-tabulation of the data by category.

• This will summarize data in categories and provides a useful table to play around with your data.


Make sure your cursor is in some cell in the table. Then go to the

tool bar and click on “insert” “Pivot Table”.


Choose the data you want to analyze


Here you will have your pivot table


• Our example data shows 5 cities in the 2 provinces of The Netherlands.

• Imagine that you want to know the total number of car crimes in each province. The list that would answer that question would show each province, with the total number of crimes next to each name.

Copyright - Hille van der Kaa

www.deuitgeeffabriek.nl

Pick up “province” from the list of variables in the floating box to the right, place it in the “row labels” box. Take the “car” variable

and put it in the “values” box.


• Using a pivot table is a great way to explore your data. Please make sure you make a new pivot table for each question. This will help you not getting lost in your data.


• Want to know more about using Excel for your journalistic research?

• Contact me by info@deuitgeeffabriek for

workshops.

• Read the Dutch ‘Handboek Datajournalistiek.’

• Follow me on Twitter @Hillevanderkaa

• Or just look for the enormous amount of tutorials on YouTube!


Date post:	05-Dec-2014
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How to: Excel for journalists

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