Predicting the future (with data), more scrutiny for the Rolling Stone, and drones: this week’s Fresh Powder Report

From data journalism to psychic journalism?

With both data journalism and computational journalism on the rise, could it be possible for journalists to predict breaking news before it actually happens? One writer at Neiman Labs thinks so; financial news, world news, medical news, and weather news are the areas of journalism Maycotte believes will be influenced most by data-driven predictive journalism. Of course, we can’t see every headline coming– entertainment news will likely continue to be as wildly unpredictable as always, data or no data.

Data-digging:

While we’re on the subject, if your program has been looking to dip a toe in the data journalism pool, but aren’t quite sure where (or how) to start, here’s a collection of over 200 tools to assist you with all your data needs. You can filter by tag, usage, and cost– the site makes an effort to showcase tools that are free and open source, so most of what you find will be readily accessible for you and your staff.

The Rolling Stone is at it again:

Rolling Stone magazine fell under scrutiny after recently publishing a 10,000 word article written by Sean Penn– and not just because they willingly published a piece of journalism penned by a celebrity. The criticism comes from this article’s editing process– more specifically, the practice of Prior Review. Penn allowed his source to pre-approve what would be said about him in the article, which, according to the chair of ethics committee for the Society of Professional Journalists, “discredits the entire story.”

These are the drones you’re looking for:

We know plenty of you have already had some experience with drone-journalism, but in case anyone needs convincing, they’re kind of a game-changer when it comes to photo and video journalism. From capturing natural disasters to wide-frame shots that would be impossible on the ground, using drones in journalism allows us to have eyes where we never could before. It makes high-quality, groundbreaking photojournalism more accessible. It also comes with a few regulations, so make sure to read up on that before diving in with a drone.

These things also happened last week:

The Golden Globes aired Sunday evening, and here are the winners.

Jennifer Lawrence scolds a journalist for looking at his phone while asking her a question– unnecessary? Probably.

A trending hashtag on Twitter reinvents classic book titles with modern, tech-themed names. (#InternetABook)