Amateurization of Data

It was really interesting to see the story of infographics in this documentary.  We may all joke about how out of control it’s gotten, but maybe it’s more than a fad?  Clearly the people who make them put in a lot of thought and man-hours into these works of art-meet-excel spreadsheets, and clearly there are a lot of big media players who are driving this as a new field of journalism.  Since there are already international awards given to the best inforgraphics each year (did anyone else find Spain a random place for that ceremony??), would it be totally off point to think there could be a Pulitzer for best information graphic in the years to come? I don’t think so.  I was really impressed by the gal who works for the New York Times who studied statistics and now makes these graphics.  It makes so much sense that her background would have to be data collection and analysis, because these graphics are not just an art form- they’re a research project!

The other side of this emerging journalistic form is what it means for amateurization though.  Several of the people interviewed mentioned how they’re leaving the data storyline rather loose and open, allowing the audience draw their own conclusions from the data.  This means that any blogger could look at a NYT infographic and write an article on his takeaway about the data, meaning a NYT writer is no longer necessary to analyze the data.  It also means that the world of researchers, statisticians, and scholars is now open to the public since data is now accessible and understandable by any user.  It’s a de-mystification of a lot of areas like crime, unemployment, and the economy, that otherwise most people wouldn’t try and understand or pursue further in their free reading time.  Part of this is really exciting for the general education level of the public.  If we all know and understand more- we participate in more informed, positive ways (political science nerd moment).  But the other part means that a lot of statisticians better learn Flash and Javascript to make themselves relevant in the years to come!  So Motley, looks like iMedia is going to have some interesting students in the next 5 years!