Lesson 5: Data in the News
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This lesson is the last lesson of Level 1 of the Data Proficiency Program. Upon completion, take a quiz and earn your Level 1 - Green Badge!
Every day, it seems that news outlets carry multiple stories about federal, state and local government agencies. Sometimes the stories have in-depth statistics or even copies of official government documents. Have you ever wondered how that information is obtained?
Maybe part of your day-to-day responsibilities are creating these documents or responding to records requests. What happens with the documents once they are provided to the requestor? Learn more by watching the lesson #5 video.
The video mentions state-specific FOIA regulations. You can learn more about the State of Indiana's Access to Public Records Act by reading IC 5-14-3: Access to Public Records.
The lesson also talks about understanding where to get data. The State of Indiana has the Indiana Data Hub, which features more than 180 publicly available aggregate datasets from more than 20 agencies. While we still have more work to do as a state to increase and consolidate available data, the Hub is a great place to start when looking for information.
Another tool available in obtaining State of Indiana Data is the Indiana Transparency Portal (ITP). The ITP features all types of State of Indiana data including expenditures, assets and employee counts. Stay tuned for next month, when our entire lesson focuses on the ITP and what can be found within the portal!
<< Go back to Lesson Four: The importance of data collection | Go to Lesson Six: Indiana Transparency Portal
The video for lesson 6 (Data in the News: Study Hall Data Literacy #5: ASU + Crash Course lesson) comes from the Study Hall: Data Literacy series released in September 2020 by Arizona State University as part of the popular Crash Course learning channel on YouTube.