Editing The Economist (section)

== Data journalism ==

The presence of [[data journalism]] in ''The Economist'' can be traced to its founding year in 1843. Initially, the weekly published basic [[international trade]] figures and tables.<ref name="Selby-Boothroyd-2018">{{Cite web |last=Selby-Boothroyd |first=Alex |date=18 October 2018 |title=Data journalism at The Economist gets a home of its own in print |url=https://medium.economist.com/data-journalism-at-the-economist-gets-a-home-of-its-own-in-print-92e194c7f67e |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220711151431/https://medium.economist.com/data-journalism-at-the-economist-gets-a-home-of-its-own-in-print-92e194c7f67e |archive-date=11 July 2022 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=Medium |language=en}}</ref><ref name="DataJournalism.com">{{Cite web |title=AMA with The Economist's data team - Newsletter |url=https://datajournalism.com/read/newsletters/ama-with-the-economists-data-team |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505101201/https://datajournalism.com/read/newsletters/ama-with-the-economists-data-team |archive-date=5 May 2020 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=DataJournalism.com |language=en}}</ref> The paper first included a graphical model in 1847—a letter featuring an illustration of various coin sizes—and its first [[Epistolary novel|non-epistolary chart]]—a tree map visualising the size of coal fields in America and England—was included in November 1854.<ref name="Selby-Boothroyd-2018" /> This early adoption of data-based articles was estimated to be "a 100 years before [[Dot-com bubble|the field's modern emergence]]" by ''Data Journalism.com.''<ref name="DataJournalism.com" /> Its transition from broadsheet to [[magazine]]-style formatting led to the adoption of coloured graphs, first in fire-engine-red during the 1980s and then in a thematic blue in 2001.<ref name="Selby-Boothroyd-2018" /> ''The'' ''Economist''<nowiki/>'s editors and readers developed a taste for more data-driven stories throughout the 2000s.<ref name="Selby-Boothroyd-2018" /> Starting in the late-2000s, the paper began to publish more and more articles that centred solely on charts, some of which were published online every weekday.<ref name="Selby-Boothroyd-2018" /> These "daily charts" are typically followed by a short, 500-word explanation. In September 2009, ''The Economist'' launched a [[Twitter]] account for their Data Team.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Economist Data Team (@ECONdailycharts) |url=https://twitter.com/ECONdailycharts |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200320215024/https://twitter.com/ECONdailycharts |archive-date=20 March 2020 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=twitter.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 2015, the data-journalism department—a dedicated team of data journalists, visualisers and interactive developers—was created to head up the paper's data journalism efforts.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 May 2018 |title=How The Economist uses its 12-person data journalism team to drive subscriptions |url=https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/economist-uses-12-person-data-journalism-team-drive-subscriptions/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809035139/https://whatsnewinpublishing.com/economist-uses-12-person-data-journalism-team-drive-subscriptions/ |archive-date=9 August 2020 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=What's New in Publishing |language=en-US}}</ref> The team's output soon included election forecasting models, covering the French presidential elections of 2017 and 2022 and the US presidential and congressional elections in 2020, among others. In late-2023, the data team advertised for a political data scientist to bolster its political forecasting efforts. In order to ensure transparency in the team's data collection and analysis ''The Economist'' maintains a corporate [[GitHub]] account to publicly disclose their models and software wherever possible.<ref name="Economist-2018">{{Cite web |last=Economist |first=The |date=22 October 2018 |title=Turning a page: The Economist's data journalism gets its own place in print |url=https://medium.economist.com/turning-a-page-the-economists-data-journalism-gets-its-own-place-in-print-664c2e5bdfe9 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411215758/https://medium.economist.com/turning-a-page-the-economists-data-journalism-gets-its-own-place-in-print-664c2e5bdfe9?gi=5d1a68c88edd |archive-date=11 April 2023 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=Medium |language=en}}</ref> In October 2018, they introduced a "Graphic Detail" featuring large charts and maps in both their print and digital editions which ran until November 2023.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 October 2018 |title=The Economist's print edition launches a dedicated data journalism page for better visual storytelling |url=https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/the-economist-s-print-edition-launches-a-dedicated-data-journalism-page-for-better-visual-storytelling/s2/a729384/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809051555/https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/the-economist-s-print-edition-launches-a-dedicated-data-journalism-page-for-better-visual-storytelling/s2/a729384/ |archive-date=9 August 2020 |access-date=9 April 2020 |website=www.journalism.co.uk}}</ref>

=== Indexes ===
Historically, the publication has also maintained a section of [[economic statistics]], such as employment figures, economic growth, and interest rates. These statistical publications have been found to be seen as authoritative and decisive in British society.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WVLKKSOcGYC&pg=PA88 |title=Great expectations—the social sciences in Great Britain |publisher=Commission on the Social Sciences |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7658-0849-3 |page=88}}</ref> ''The Economist'' also publishes a variety of rankings seeking to position [[business school]]s and [[Undergraduate education|undergraduate universities]] among each other, respectively. In 2015, they published their first ranking of U.S. universities, focusing on comparable economic advantages. Their data for the rankings is sourced from the [[United States Department of Education|U.S. Department of Education]] and is calculated as a function of median earnings through [[regression analysis]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=29 October 2015 |title=The Economist "The value of university: Our first-ever college rankings" |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-university |url-status=live |access-date=29 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180311051641/https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/10/value-university |archive-date=11 March 2018}}</ref> Among others, the most well-known [[Index (economics)|data indexes]] the weekly publishes are:

* The [[Big Mac Index]]: a measure of the [[Purchasing power parity|purchasing power]] of currencies, first published in 1986, using the price of the hamburger in different countries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paul R. Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZnk5C2r8qEC&pg=PA396 |title=International Economics |publisher=Pearson Education |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-321-55398-0 |page=396}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=6–12 September 1986 |title=On the Hamburger Standard |newspaper=The Economist}}</ref> This is published twice a year since 2006, annually prior to that.<ref>{{ cite web| title= The Economist GitHub | website= [[GitHub]]| url= https://github.com/TheEconomist/big-mac-data}}</ref>
*[[Democracy Index]]: a measure of the state of democracy in the world, produced by the paper's [[Economist Intelligence Unit]] (EIU)
* The [[Glass Ceiling Index]]: a measure of [[Occupational sexism|female equality in the workplace]].
* The Most Dangerous Cities Index: a measure of major cities [[List of countries by intentional homicide rate|by rates of homicide]].
*Commodity-Price Index: a measure of [[Commodity|commodities]], such as [[gold]] and [[Brent Crude|brent oil]], as well as agricultural items