Some kinds of reporting-by-the-numbers are anything but lazy. Take investigations looking into algorithms — examining the formulas used by the government to determine who is more likely to commit a crime or how likely your building is to have a fire inspection.

Speaking at the recent International Festival of Journalism, Nick Diakopoulos, assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism and a member of its Human Computer Interaction Lab, gave a solid primer on how to get started.

He’s been studying the wider reach of algorithms in society, government and industry for about four years, coming at it from a computer science background as a “techie who worked my way into journalism.” Boyish, bespectacled and occasionally prone to professorial turns of phrase like “algorithmic accountability,” Diakopoulos offered a look into the numbers that shape our lives. Continue reading →