An extension of the Common Sense Journalism monthly column by Doug Fisher, former broadcaster, newspaper reporter and wire service editor. From new media to old, much of journalism is just plain common sense.
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Unknown (often improperly attributed to Thomas Jefferson)
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair
"Common sense is not so common" - Voltaire
"Common sense is instinct; enough of it is genius" - George Bernard Shaw
I'm of the camp that says data visualization is one of those "skills" that j-school grads are going to have to be familiar with. (Remember, familiar does NOT mean everyone must be an expert, but that you have to know about it to communicate with those who can help you pull it off.)
Labels: data visualization, database journalism
posted by Doug @ 12:30 PM
2 comments|
Right click on the chicklet and copy the address to your newsreader. (Or click directly on the chicklet for some quick links to some of the most common newsreaders.)
Some other fun sites:
2 Comments:
The idea of the charts on the SU game was fascinating, but I thought the result was too hard to follow. The scale on the line chart didn't identify its units, for example. I want to figure out how they did it, though; there might be a really cool application lurking in the idea (Imagine the headlines: "Statistics say Cleveland State girls better bet than Browns"; "Need to watch playoff? Try orchestra."
Peter:
I had a little bit of trouble at first, too. But the more I looked at it, the more it made sense.
In this case, I was willing to give it a little more leeway because the site is aimed as sports fanatics, and I can see where they would focus on it and pick it up as a shorthand more easily than the general user.
I also think it is useful to show how a game can be broken into data parts that can be used by a computer to write the story.
Doug
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