The Associated Press data team primarily uses R and the Tidyverse as the main tool for doing data processing and analysis. In this talk, some of the technology behind the published stories will be showcased: – Using dbplyr to work off a hosted database containing 380 million opioid records to identify "pill mills". – Using open-sourced AP style templates for R Markdown and ggplot to quickly produce graphics and reports off breaking news. – Using R Markdown and htmlwidgets to give reporters and editors interactive reports to identify reporting leads.
Larry Fenn is a data journalist at the Associated Press. His investigative work has covered a broad range of topics, from guns to education to housing policy. Prior to journalism, he was an adjunct lecturer at Hunter College for applied mathematics and statistics.