Let me make a confession. Before starting the data journalism module at City I was highly skeptical of this new and somewhat alien way of telling stories. I’ve never been keen on (or particularly good at…) anything remotely related to maths so naturally, when the words ‘spreadsheet’, ‘ratio’ and, worst of all, ‘concatenate’ started bounding around, I felt like running away.
The changing face of journalism
Yet whether we like it or not, journalism in the traditional, one dimensional sense of writer talking to reader is rapidly changing. The reader is no longer content with being the passive consumer of a story, desiring instead to be involved as an active participant. With social media, smartphones and all things web-based sweeping the developing world, the good news for readers is that today, they easily can be. Journalists on the other hand, must think about changing their game if they want to remain an authoritative source of news.
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Image: Sophia Vanco
This is where data comes in. Breaking new ground in journalism at a time when the industry really needs it, data-driven storytelling is new; it’s exciting; it’s informative; and it often looks pretty darn neat. Unfortunatley, looking cool and modern doesn’t necessarily make something good.
Taken at surface value, numbers are just raw, meaningless figures. Yes they can be made to look pretty, but without a strong story to make them human, relevant and in essence ‘journalism’, they belong to the sci-fi world of the robot. Data journalism is only as good as the story it tells.
The stories behind the numbers
In my view, a real risk at the moment is that the growing craze for data visualisations may take away from the significance of the stories they are trying to tell. A map showing data about foster care in the UK, for example, may display the numbers clearly, but without powerful case studies and thoroughly-researched context to explain and humanise the statistics, is it really a good piece of journalism?
When it’s done well, data is capable of truly shaking things up for the better but as of yet, great work is far from being done across the board. Meaningless 3D pie charts continue to pop up almost everywhere, and many stories still lack an in-depth consideration of the real people behind the numbers. Words are still important too, you know.
Journalism and data journalism as one and the same
Perhaps unsuprisingly, I’m not planning on becoming a data journalist anytime soon. I love my words too much to spend days wading through numbers. Yet is a ‘data journalist’ really any different to a journalist? The same core principles apply- accuracy, honesty, context, reliability, entertainment…they’re all still crucial. Having some data skills under your belt opens up a wider range of sources and a greater variety of ways in which to tell your story.
I have struggled with the supposedly ‘basic’ elements, screamed profanities at my computer and suffered one too many headaches from staring at code that just won’t do what I want it to do. Yet while a lot of the work I’ve emerged with has been flawed with huge room for improvement, I’ve learnt from past mistakes and will continue to do so. At the end of the day, I’m giving this thing a go, and many more traditional-thinking journalists who also loathe maths may surprise themselves by doing likewise.
Filed under: Dataplay Tagged: code, data journalism, data-driven storytelling, visualisation Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
