Data Journalism

Data journalists share insights

Interviewer: Do you see stories in data or do you start with a story and then look for data to back it up?

Ros: If you start with a preconceived story, the danger is you might slant the data to tell your story. But we do pore over data and then the stories start to tell themselves.

Interviewer: In designing a graphic what do you pay attention to?

Alex: The trend must be clear. The axes marked. Numbers marked and if uncertain, confidence interval shown. Colours and shape of datapoints echoing theme. This one showing cherry blossom opening in Japan 800 to present does it well.

Interviewer: Do you use special software?

Ros: Yes. Plotting, mapping and Illustrator.

Alex: And some coding and scripting: R for modelling, D3 for visualizations.

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Voice-over

The Economist has recently started a graphic detail section (the page before the weekly Obituary). So nowadays I start with the Obituary as a starter, jump to the leaders and save the data page for dessert.