Turning economics numbers into stories

Gretchen Peck writes for E&P about economics reporters and how they use numbers to tell stories.

Peck writes, “Ben Casselman is an ‘unapologetic econ nerd,’ according to his New York Times bio. He’s reported on various aspects of the economy for more than 20 years — real estate, oil and gas. He covered the Great Recession for The Wall Street Journal and later reported for FiveThirtyEight. In 2017, he joined The New York Times newsroom and teaches economics reporting at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

“‘Early in my career, I became the guy in the newsroom who people would come to with math questions — usually calculating percentage changes, not advanced calculus,’ he recalled. That inspired him to become proficient in Excel and to learn to code.

“Casselman explained that working with data allows economic reporters to ‘stress test’ theories.

“‘I work with economists all the time when we really want to dig into something, but it’s great to be able to do some of that initial work on my own to see if there’s something there,’ he said.

“Data visualization has become an essential part of the job. ‘My colleagues here on the graphics team often add annotations to help guide people through the interpretation of a chart, especially if it’s a slightly less familiar form of a chart,’ he said.”

Read more here.