Data Visualizations

Data Visualizations in News

Data journalism, that is, using numerical elements in the production and distribution of news with computer-assisted tools, is an emerging area in the field of information and mass media. According to a 2017 research report by Google News Lab, one of the first comprehensive multinational studies of data journalism, 42% of the journalists surveyed use data regularly to tell stories, and 51% of news organizations have a dedicated data journalist on staff.

Journalism stories involving big databases and statistics have won several Pulitzer Prizes for general news or investigative reporting since the 1980s. Examples include the Montgomery Advertiser’s use of financial analysis to investigate the state’s high infant mortality rate in 1988 and a series of investigative articles published by The Wall Street Journal on the admission preferences for white privileged students in elite American universities by Daniel Golden in 2004. In addition, the staff of The Washington Post won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize (in the Explanatory Reporting category) for its climate change series that analyzed global temperature records and showed “with scientific clarity the dire effects of extreme temperatures on the planet” (The Pulitzer Prizes, 2020).

Tables, charts, maps, timelines, infographics, animations, and interactive graphs are common visual elements utilized to present data in data-driven storytelling. The basic ideas behind data visualization are not new. Diagrams, maps, and sketches have been used to depict events since ancient times. Maps were drawn to assist in exploration, navigation, and the identification of the locations of the stars in the universe. In ancient Egypt, for example, mapping of stars was used to locate the appropriate positions to construct towns and habitats. By the 18th century, new techniques were being used to present data in fields such as cartography, with theme-based maps based on medical, geological, or economic data instead of only showing geographical locations.

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