Media Innovation Group Data Fellows
In Fall 2022, the Media Innovation Group started an initiative to connect students with data driven stories. Professor McDonald hired a group of Data Fellows to work on various projects that involve and utilize data from databases across the state. The Fellows' main focus has been building a searchable database of local campaign finances since 2020. Each fellow works in a different area of research from extracting and organizing data to presenting data in a podcast format. We are excited to see where the local campaign finances project takes our fellows, and we look forward to sharing our findings.
Karina Kumar
- Journalism Senior with Certificate in Elements of Computing
- Hometown: Austin, TX
I am a student technician for the Media Innovation Group, where I've been testing the best way to ask for public information from school districts and help organize the assignment for other students to also request public information. So far, I’ve learned a lot about how to interact with school districts and other groups when requesting public information. The process can sometimes be really easy when you ask in the right way and they want to help, but other times it can be really hard to get the documents you need, so learning how to do it properly has been super helpful. I’ve also learned a lot about different techniques of pulling data from PDFs such as Google PinPoint.
I’m really excited for other journalists to hopefully be able to use the documents we are compiling. This project has taken a lot of turns when it comes to the ultimate goal but one that has always remained is making the local campaign finance reports more accessible to other journalists so they can get to the data and find stories to write about.
Aislyn Gaddis
- Journalism Senior
- Hometown: Grapevine, TX
I co-produce and edit the Data Dives podcast. So far, I’ve learned how to turn data stories into an easily-digestible audio format, and I look forward to continuing to learn how to make data stories more accessible.
Olivia Dilley
- Journalism Senior with a minor in Law, Justice and Society
- Hometown: Flower Mound, TX
A fun fact about me is that I run an antique booth! In my free time, I enjoy writing, reading, photography, and exploring the city with my friends. I’m super excited to learn more about data and how to work with it!