The Cheat Sheet

newsbeastlabs:

This week, we’re super excited that our project This Is Your Rep On Guns was nominated for a Data Journalism Award in the Data-Driven Application category.

As we wrote about a couple of times on this blog, we have been tracking all 530+ representatives’ positions on gun control, updating it when news happens, and publishing their statements automatically via our Twitter robot @YourRepsOnGuns. 

It’s been a very fun project and one we hope that has been informative. We’ve received a number of emails from readers tipping us off to local articles and they’ve sent in letters from their rep explaining their position on gun control. 

If you want to help us be able to do more projects like this, there’s a People’s Choice component of the awards where you can vote for us.

If you like the project and want to give us your vote, you can find us here. We’re only 70 votes away from first place! (Sometimes the site asks you to also log in to Facebook, but nothing gets posted from your account, we’ve checked.)

Thanks for the help these past few months!

 

-Michael

Hey look, our team got nominated for an data journalism award!

Here’s the original interactive (seriously, check it out). And here’s where you can vote for us! 

motherjones:

theatlantic:

In Burma, the End of Censorship Means a Scramble to Figure Out Journalism

The country’s media will be free to print daily newspapers for the first time in five decades starting on April 1. But first, they have to learn how.

Read more. [Images: Jake Spring]

What we’re reading, East Coast lunch edition.

Very cool. 

newsbeastlabs:

It was the Monday morning news meeting and all we could talk about was Dennis Rodman, Kim Jong-un, and Vice Media. It was the strangest story of the week, and utterly riveting. But there was more to it than what had already been reported.

The Vice show is funded by HBO, which is owned by Time Warner, which has a boatload of shareholders. Vice Media itself has a whole range of wealthy investors, including former Viacom CEO Tom Freston and The Raine Group, a who’s who of one-percenters. Meaning: a lot of people stand to benefit from the hospitality/propaganda machine of the one of the world’s most notorious dictators.

Reporter Caitlin Dickson started looking at the various connections, using LittleSis.org, an online database that tracks the social connections among the powerful—politicians, business leaders, lobbyists, hedge funders, etc. LittleSis is a project of the nonprofit Public Accountability Initiative and a great, easily-searchable, user-friendly source for reporters. You can search people and companies, find out how they’re connected to each other and to whom they donate money.

Check out the screenshot for an example, and the story for the final product. Caitlin was on deadline pressure so was only able to scrape the surface on the Vice story, but there’s no doubt much more to mine.

-Paula Szuchman, deputy managing editor

This is how our team followed the VICE/Dennis Rodman/North Korea money trail for this story.

Can we trust Zoe Barnes knowing that she’s a… a… double-spacer? (h/t @bzcohen)

newsweek:

Here’s a gif of Shaq smooching Michael Moynihan.

Always the professional. 

azipaybarah:

From The Times home page just now.

Intense. 

(Source: cajunboy)

shortformblog:

Freedom of Information Act request filed for President’s beer recipe

After President Obama publicly debuted the White House’s home-brewed honey ale — aptly named White House Honey Ale — at a campaign stop last month, reporters and home-brewers alike have begged for details on the recipe. After a campaign on the White House’s “We The People” petition website failed, a Reddit user decided to take a more direct approach. Pictured above is an excerpt from a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, asking that the White House release the recipe to a home-brewer with non-commercial ambitions. Do you think it’ll work? (Photo via Reddit user imatexasda) source

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reuters:

Twitter Inc and NBC Universal’s move to suppress a British reporter’s tweets related to the network’s Olympics coverage may have backfired after the incident became fodder for Twitter chatter around the world on Monday.

The microblogging service suspended Guy Adams, the Los Angeles correspondent for London-based daily The Independent, after he sent a tweet on Friday revealing NBC Olympics President Gary Zenkel’s email address.

Adams was among a number of Twitter users in the United States who vented their frustration with NBC, a Comcast Corp subsidiary, for showing the London Olympics’ opening ceremony on tape delay to coincide with evening prime-time in the United States.

“The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com,” Adams tweeted.

As part of his suspension, Adams’ account and his tweets were rendered invisible. But in a twist of irony, the incident went viral on Monday, as “Guy Adams” became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.

In an email to Adams, Twitter informed the reporter that he had violated “Twitter Rules” by posting another user’s private information such as “private email address, physical address, telephone number, or financial documents.”

NBC confirmed that it had filed a complaint with Twitter.

READ ON: Twitter suspends reporter’s account for NBC tweet

soupsoup:

Gay marriage conversation peaked at 7,347 Tweets per minute at 3:22p ET yesterday. (via @gov)

So many tweets. Watch a video of tweets containing “Obama” pouring in shortly after the news broke.