Source: Rich Gordon, Knight Lab, Northwestern University
“a large web-based interactive database that tells a journalistic story using software instead of words and pictures.”
— Scott Klein, ProPublica
When producing interactive stories, thou shalt:
An interactive news application must meet a clearly-stated user need and explain a topic with a narrative structure, not just display data for the reader to explore.
“Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand”
Source: Ben Shneiderman, “The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations”. Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, 336-343, 1996.
Source: Financial Times
Source: FT: Election results explained | Video
Source: Financial Times
FT: UK general election results
Highlight the important views before handing over control.
Source: Edward Segel and Jeffrey Heer, “Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with Data”
Very effective ‘micro’ view is personalisation.
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun
Source: “How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk”New York Times, December 21, 2013
Source: Financial Times
Interactivity shifts cognitive burden onto the reader, so:
Source: FT: General Election projections
“I sort of see data journalism ... as social science done on deadline.
“We’re using the tools that social scientists have used for years ... [and] applying those tools to journalism problems and using it to help us tell stories with more authority.”
— Steve Doig in “‘Social science done on deadline’: Research chat with ASU’s Steve Doig on data journalism,” Journalists’ Resource, Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
“Using data to add depth, colour or context to a story is one thing, but creating a story ex nihilo is where the real value lies ...
“Statistical journalism offers a ... way [to be] first, right and leaving rivals scrambling to report on your story.”
— John Burn-Murdoch in Data Journalism: Mapping the Future
“You can’t reblog Snowfall”.
Introduce functionality or tell an ongoing story that can attract readers for longer than any one news item, ideally indefinitely.
Source: FT: Win, Lose or Hold?
Source: FT: UK coalition calculator
Source: Financial Times
The ‘deli counter’ graphics team no longer works:
“This work is too expensive, in terms of time and resources, to follow the old print graphics desk model.
“Journalist-developers must be woven into the assigning side of the newsroom and involved in stories from the very beginning, not sitting around waiting to pretty things up at the last minute.”
— Tom Meagher, “Things I never learned at newspapers about making news on the internet”Print space constraints don’t apply, so obtain the most granular data possible.
Benefits:
When producing interactive stories, thou shalt: