- journalism
Writing for radio: a quote-based writing method
Writing is hard work. When preparing a radio script, I put off that hard work as long as I can, focusing on the quotes and scenes, and only starting to write at the very end of the job.
- Programming
- django
- wagtail
Wagtail: replicating a database with fixtures
Replicating your development database on your production server isn't as easy as copy-paste. A bug in Wagtail makes it doubly difficult. Here's a step-by-step guide that worked for me.
- Programming
- Haiti
50 lines of code behind one line of reporting
Education in Haiti is unequal, but how unequal? To find out, I scoured the internet for data, then applied a little basic coding to get an answer. The techniques I used were simple but come from the world of programming, not journalism. A simple parable about the use of coding skills in a journalist's daily work.
- Programming
Coarse Programmer's Guide to Scraping: Know your URLs
Scraping news websites is a research superpower... in the right hands. In the wrong hands you could end up downloading the whole internet.
Hunting for William Hall
In the year of our lord eighteen hundred and fifty seven, a volunteer in the British Navy from Horton, Nova Scotia stood almost alone in a rubble-strewn courtyard in Lucknow, India. Behind him, a force of British troops and loyal …
Gritty journalism on a shoestring: send some string their way!
Six staff members. 10 freelancers. 14 awards. 50,000 visitors a month. 10,000 facebook followers. 500 hundred original stories a year. And they do it all for an annual budget of $20,000 USD! Lado B is no milquetoast pamphlet for store …