title: Converting JSON String to Dictionary Not List
body: <p>I am trying to pass in a JSON file and convert the data into a dictionary.</p>
  
  <p>So far, this is what I have done:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import json
  json1_file = open('json1')
  json1_str = json1_file.read()
  json1_data = json.loads(json1_str)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm expecting <code>json1_data</code> to be a <code>dict</code> type but it actually comes out as a <code>list</code> type when I check it with <code>type(json1_data)</code>. </p>
  
  <p>What am I missing? I need this to be a dictionary so I can access one of the keys. </p>