Among yesterday’s front pages was a data visualisation which, at first glance, was one of the most effective I’ve ever seen: the Independent had made an infographic showing yesterday’s £6bn budget cuts in context - as a fraction of a debt mountain.
Then I looked closer - and something’s very, very wrong.
Can you tell what it […]
jamesrb.co.uk is written by James Ball, who is the development producer at the recently-founded Bureau of Investigative Journalism. He’s still not quite sure what a development producer is, but he tries hard.
Before that, he was chief reporter for food industry bible The Grocer. He has written for the Guardian, Times, Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, News of the World, among others. His Grocer stories have appeared on the front pages of all of the UK’s papers, but he wouldn’t dream of pointing that out.
He has made numerous appearances on TV and radio, almost all of which involved him talking about food shortages, ripoffs, or scares. He’s been on the BBC 1′o’clock and 6′o’clock news, BBC Breakfast, Radio 2, 4 and 5, and more. He’s also been shouted at on LBC for his views on voting.
James completed a postgraduate diploma in investigative journalism at City University in 2008. His first degree is in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from Trinity College, Oxford.
His interests are media, politics and economics - especially the data and stats underpinning all three.
His hobbies include making awkward FoI requests and wading through reams of spreadsheets. The latter is slightly more glamourously referred to as Computer Assisted Reporting. Obviously all that gets him invited to all the best parties.
He works as a trainer in data journalism in the UK and abroad, primarily through the Centre of Investigative Journalism.
If you’d like to contact him, there are whole hosts of ways. If you’re a PR, gorkana has an unnerving habit of tracking down his mobile number faster than he can get it changed. Ach.
Anyone else can email james@jamesrb.co.uk or look him up on twitter. Alternatively, add him on Facebook, if you must. His profile’s here. It’s laughably inaccurate, and includes some rude words he would never actually use.
Just for info, this blog was launched in its current format in July 2007, called for no obvious reason “TwentyNothing”. It reverted to “jamesrb.co.uk” in Jan 2008. It isn’t updated nearly often enough.
James is not this guy, but thinks you should take a look at his site anyway. His photography (especially the Morecombe shots) is great.
James is this guy, but doesn’t like the years-old byline photo one bit.