The past few weeks in regards to data journalism there has only been mentions and predictions of how actual newsrooms would function with this new endeavor. Well this week, the readings have discussed how newsrooms actually look when applying data journalism as apart of their news cycle. The scenarios all seem to be the same thing that were brought up in previous weeks: a healthy mixture of web specialists with journalists each pointing each other in the right direction to accomplish the goal of completing a story.
Data journalism may not replace traditional reporting but it can enhance it. Washington Post Information Director Wilson Andrews believes that while data journalism is rising, it will do no more than make a long form reported story more interesting with its graphics. That is vital to the newsrooms of today because of the competition that is out there. News companies are competing with blogs for the reader’s attention, both written and visual.
It is not that difficult to put these things together. Adrian Holovaty wrote about things that you find in a newspaper which can be turned into data journalism stories. One example he used was an obituary having a person, date and funeral home. You can do a bar graph on which funeral home has the most funerals or funerals of a certain race. For a smaller town, particularly a college town, it can be about an infographic of college graduates and which area of the country or state they are from.
1. How many newspapers are actually practicing the use of data journalism into regular news rotation?
2. Will data journalism save newspapers?
3.How do companies drive themselves to data journalism?
4. How can data journalism get in the way of a traditional news story?
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