The topic of this documentary was really fascinating overall. I have always been intrigued by infographics and data visualization as a way to communicate a new perspective to the audience.
Amanda Cox of the New York Times describes data visualization as a way to take something mundane that you already know and force you to think about it again with a different perspective. I have always understood the general benefits of data visualization and infographics as a way to present large sets of data to the public in a more digestible and accessible way but…I never understood that data visualization was becoming a form of journalism or even a new medium.
I can see why data visualizations has been shifting from a strictly research and computer science technique to a mainstay tool in the newsroom. This documentary proved that data visualizations are effective in putting data into context. It is the job of journalists to find narratives devices within the visualizations and use them to provide a new element of the story.
I also thought it was interesting to see infographics and data visualizations as art for the first time. It is not just about the data that the visualization illustrates it also matters how the image looks. Some of the examples cited in the documentary could be considered on their own as works of art.
Overall, it is clear throughout the documentary that exploratory analysis and visualization is becoming a medium in the journalism field.
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