Einar Thorsen

Professor of Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University

Publications | Conferences | Teaching | Projects

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Coins database: what the Guardian’s specialists think

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Juliette Jowit on the environment:

The most striking thing about Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is simply that more than half last year's £3bn budget was spent on the UK's nuclear waste legacy.

[…]

Act on CO2 is only a small part of overall spending on reducing pollution (£800m went on insulating buildings alone), oil and gas makes up most of UK energy but a relatively tiny spend (excepting their gargantuan tax concessions). But the raw numbers reflect criticisms of previous government policy: that it did not talk tough enough to voters on emissions, it hypocritically talked up a zero-carbon economy while encouraging fossil fuels, and it did not take adaptation seriously enough.

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For election data that matters, we have our nerds to thank – Ben Goldacre – The Guardian

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    Ben Goldacre on idea of website containing structured data on what the candidates think on issues:

    "Neither academics, nor parties, nor the media have achieved this: but 6,000 activists around the country have worked on a crowd-sourcing operation built around DemocracyClub, again set up by two volunteers, Seb Bacon and Tim Green. With the help of mySociety, they populated the YourNextMP database of candidates, itself the baby of another volunteer, Edmund von der Burg. This data is now freely available, a resource for any political theorist or technically capable adolescent, down to its rawest form.

    Data is the fabric of our lives, and everywhere around us: but to be analysed, so it can generate knowledge and understanding, it must be corralled. In an ideal world, these empty frameworks would be built by national institutions: until they wake up, we have our nerds."

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    Del.ici.us tags: election2010 structured data politics mysociety bengoldacre

General election 2010: the 10 key datasets to help you decide – guardian.co.uk

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    General election 2010: the 10 key datasets to help you decide – guardian.co.uk

    "With the general election 2010 campaign well and truly underway, it's easy for the key facts to get lost in a barrage of propaganda, counter-accusations and obsfucation, as Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats battle for the key marginals.

    To help you through the next few weeks of campaign, we've compiled some of the best datasets. Every day, we'll be adding more and more to the site – so let us know if there's anything else you need to know.

    What can you do with the data?"

    Del.ici.us tags: election2010 data trends guardian