“Journalism is dying.” “Long-established and well-known newspapers are closing their doors in
various parts of the world.” “No one reads the news anymore.”
We have heard phrases like these frequently lately and, in a certain way, they are right, since it is no
longer common to see people opening the pages of a newspaper on a park bench to find out what’s new in the country.
At the same time, streaming services and audiovisual platforms are winning over a large part of the
usual news viewers.
But the authors of the above statements may be misinformed about the latest good news: digital
transformation has reached journalism and is here to stay.
The main exponent of this movement is data journalism, which has been promoting important
changes, both in the process of producing information and in its subsequent consumption by users of
news sites.
Big Data and People Analytics resources and tools are incorporated into newspaper editorial offices,
allowing access to more valuable, reliable, complete information adapted to the dynamics of digital
reading.
Below, we will show you the main developments in the data journalism scene and their impact on the
way we see the world.
If you don’t want to remain out of date on the subject, reading the content to the end is your best decision.
What is data journalism?
In essence, data journalism is a method of thailand telegram data news production oriented towards
the use of information and elements of numerical value with the aim of producing correlations that
allow reaching precise and relevant conclusions on topics of interest to the public .
The disruptive nature of this professional modality is shown in the break with the routine of the
conventional journalist, consisting of field work on the streets based on manually prepared
guidelines, face-to-face or telephone interviews and the generation of news content at the end.
With data journalism, the logic is reversed. Instead of proposing a research topic and then actively
seeking out information, editors and reporters dive into the data troves they have collected and
identify gaps or points of connection that are worth exploring further. It is therefore data analysis that
kick-starts the news production process, taking on a much more significant role.
How did the concept of Data Journalism emerge?
The term “Data-driven Journalism” began mistakes in b2b lead generation to be used in 2009 in the
United States to designate news production initiatives based on structured data, and was adapted to
different languages in the following years.
The development of a concept for the activity responded to the need to give shape and impetus
to the new journalistic model , facilitating its dissemination throughout the professional
community and guiding academic and independent studies on the subject.
Many communicators in the field have included working with data in their professional profiles to
adapt to the hiring demands of vehicles and companies that are undergoing the transition to data-
driven production.
When did journalism start working with data?
The question seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? After all, journalism has always had as its pillar the
veracity of the information transmitted phone number vietnam in its reports in all its formats.
In fact, the long history of journalism has already witnessed initiatives and actions focused on
statistical data , which subsidized the reader’s interpretation of the topic addressed.
The first known example comes from the American newspaper The New York’s Tribune, which in
1849 published on its front page a comprehensive and visually friendly graphic about the cholera
epidemic that devastated the city that year.
Although medicine had not advanced enough to understand the causes of the disease, the newspaper
article alerted the population to its lethal nature and the need to mobilize efforts to prevent a massive
number of deaths.
The problem diminished with the emergence of digital tools that automated data structuring .
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Why can data help journalism?
Let’s now talk about the main advantages of associating data with journalism:
They do not respond to the influence of particular interests
The journalistic credibility of traditional media has been put in serious jeopardy in recent years, mainly with the emergence of fake news on social media.
Given that quality information is the main raw material for journalistic investigation, it is essential that it comes from reliable sources that are not influenced by commercial or ideological interests. And what better than numbers to guarantee an objective origin for the facts?
The main premise of data journalism is to present, in a clean and easy-to-read way, numerical information related to the content topic , allowing the reader’s evaluation to be based on statistics and not on assumptions or personal versions that are often distorted by conventional sources of interviews.
They increase the quality of productions
Data analysis makes it possible to connect limited portions of information on complex and diversified problems and situations, making the content more complete and providing comprehensive and efficient assistance to the reader’s evaluation.
In addition, the multiplicity of data visualization formats provides the user with a more complete and interactive experience, since they can navigate through the graphs and charts in the order of their preference.
The bubble map below, available on the Flowing Data site , shows very interesting data on the correlations between the professions of people who marry in the United States.
The main data visualization resources currently used on news sites are:
- interactive charts and tables;
- animated infographics ;
- geographic heat maps;
- bubble panels;
- diagrams;
- inter alia.
What resources and tools make data journalism possible?
At this point you might be asking yourself: but how do journalists work so well with numbers, if they are human?
Although a reasonable analytical capacity is required to produce data-driven news, the answer to success lies in the series of digital tools and resources that communication companies have been able to take advantage of to guide their initiatives.
Some examples are as follows:
Big data
Big data tools allow structuring the volume of large databases, allowing for the creation of common filters and parameters that separate the information generated according to the journalist’s interest and the thematic category that will be explored in a story.
At the same time, responsive and user-friendly dashboards create ideal conditions for comprehensive data analysis and better targeting of existing connection points between available information.