Mapped: How Activists Shaped the Face of the British Isles

Abstract

This essay explores the methodology used to produce the investigative report Mapped: How Activists Shaped the Face of the British Isles, evaluating whether or not the project was effective in fulfilling its purpose, and articulating some of the new questions it raised. This project’s purpose was to produce a piece of investigative journalism to industry standard, designed for publication in an established media outlet as identified by the student. On a personal level, I also hoped to use this project to practice data journalism and data visualisation. The investigative report as submitted is not up to industry standard, but I believe the underlying investigation is, and with a little more work the final report could be. I set ambitious goals for the project in terms of the scale of the data, the scope of the hypothesis, and the use of tools. As the investigation progressed, I encountered setbacks and new information that threw a different light on my findings, but had failed to leave myself enough time to step back. More time was needed to re-examine my hypothesis, sharpen the news angle, reorganise my data and reframe the story in ways necessary to do it justice or bring it up to a standard where it is ready to be published (or even pitched as a draft) to The Guardian or The Ecologist. This project was effective as a vehicle for practicing data journalism and data visualisation.