{"id":2263,"date":"2016-09-17T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T21:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/newsroom16\/?p=948"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:35:49","slug":"how-to-learn-how-to-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2016\/09\/17\/how-to-learn-how-to-code\/","title":{"rendered":"How to learn how to code"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the course of ONA, many sessions have covered the different things you can do with code. Maybe you want to learn to make interactive graphics. Maybe you want to investigate government datasets for a big scoop. Maybe you just want to automate a menial task you have to do every day.<\/p>\n

But getting started writing code can be\u00a0daunting and frustrating.\u00a0I talked to a few fantastic news developers here at ONA to get some of the best tips for learning to code. This advice is more focused on process and attitude, which will be useful regardless of what you’re trying to learn. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what they had to share.<\/span><\/p>\n

Build something small<\/b><\/p>\n

The faster you get out of a tutorial like Codecademy<\/a> and start working on an actual project, the better.\u00a0Pick something small that you want to learn. Rome wasn\u2019t built in a day, and neither was that fancy New York Times graphic that you want to emulate. Don\u2019t let your ambition stymie your learning. Almost everybody I talked to at the conference talked about building something small first.<\/p>\n

Thomas Thoren, a former developer at the Lens, said he started by making small tweaks to his campus magazine\u2019s website. \u201cIt started with something as simple as \u2018I don\u2019t like this color\u2019 or \u2018something is aligned wrong.\u2019\u201d Eventually those little tweaks built up and he learned the skills to be able to make more meaningful changes to the code. \u201cIt\u2019s kinda incremental over years until you step back and realize, \u2018I am a programmer now.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas added that a key question you need to answer is why do you want to learn to code. Having direction is key because \u201cyou can quickly spread yourself too thin in programming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Build something for you<\/b><\/p>\n

This seems like a no-brainer, but having a project that excites you can be key to getting the momentum going to actually making something.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that helped me get started learning how to code was making my own website,\u201d said Priya Krishnakumar, a graphics and data journalist at the Los Angeles Times. \u201cIt took a long time, but it helped me really understand the basics of how to set up a webpage and got my design chops flowing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the <\/span>Northwestern Knight Lab<\/a>,<\/span> we often tell eager people to learn to code by having them build a portfolio site so that they are personally invested in the work.<\/span><\/p>\n

The news nerd community is there for you<\/b><\/p>\n

You are not alone. \u201cIt\u2019s important to reach out in the community and talk to people who are also journalist-developers because a lot of the time if you run into a really big roadblock, and you don\u2019t know how to fix it, people in the community are totally down to help,\u201d said Krishnakumar.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve benefited so much from asking people for help on Twitter when I can\u2019t get my code to work. This is especially important when you\u2019re trying to use open source software that was built in other newsrooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFind people whose code you admire and pick their brains,\u201d said Brittany Mayes, a freelance data journalist. \u201cAsk them to walk you through their code and tell you about what languages they use, what frameworks they use, and that will give you a good starting place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the course of ONA, many sessions have covered the different things you can do with code. Maybe you want to learn to make interactive graphics. Maybe you want to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10529,"featured_media":2446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[480,185],"tags":[1267],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-conference","category-industry","tag-ona16"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/09\/Screen-Shot-2016-09-17-at-1.59.15-PM-e1474142407225-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5Q1c-Av","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10529"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4312,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions\/4312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}