The emphasis upon “data driven journalism” was made at the 2016 Data Journalism Awards (DJA.) These awards were recently held at the Vienna town hall. The awards were handed out during the 2016 Global Editors Network (GEN) Summit, which is a gathering of editors of online media.
The director of the DJA, Simon Rogers, explains the significance of the data driven journalism approach: “Great work can inspire and create more great work. Entering the awards is not just about winning a prize or being recognized for your achievements; it’s about helping the rest of the world do what you do and taking it onto the next level. It’s about making us all better.”
At the 2016 awards, one prize went to the team behind the Panama Paper. Peter Aldhous and Charles Seife won the prize for dataviz of the year, for their project on light aircraft surveillance over America called “Spies in the Skies“.
But what exactly is data driven journalism and how did it originate?
According to the website Euroscientist, journalism that has solid data at its heart is all about an evidence-based approach to writing. Here, the science network contends that the role of the journalist is to critically analyze data that affects human society, such as key science developments, environmental shifts and social policy decisions.
Euroscientist sees this as a distinct branch of journalism. To achieve this, the commentator Sabine Louët has written, there needs to be a combination of data analysis, interpretation and visualization (the way that outcomes are expressed.) This should lead to greater accuracy in reporting, and a reduction in over-emotive expressions.
The data journalism approach was developed by Philip Meyer (former holder of the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.) Meyer pioneered the use of the scientific method within the practice of journalism. This was back in 1967 when Meyer challenged a prevailing view relating to riots in Detroit.
At the time most of the media were reporting that high school dropouts made up the majority body of the riots. However, Meyer’s groundbreaking analysis showed that college students were as likely to have participated, to the same level, as high school dropouts. Meyer achieved this through one of the earliest examples of computer assisted reporting.
Data driven journalism is not appropriate for every news story; but it is important that, within certain fields, the data is reviewed and probed. Often there is a little more going on than the initial headlines suggest. For those wishing to know more, there is a special Data Driven Journalism Twitter feed (@ddj_rr).
