I wasn’t incredibly intrigued by the Journalism in the Age of Data video until I saw the example of energy usage with the Dracula cartoon. The music, sound effects, and visuals added so much to the idea of energy saving and made the topic much more interesting and understandable. That was a perfect example of why visualization is so important in journalism.
Along with the visual aspect, this video examined how important storytelling is to journalism. The video gave many examples of data structures that really needed a good story to help explain them to the audience. Visualizations help of course, but, as the video also mentioned, visualizations do not mean much when the story isn’t there.
When combined, good storytelling and visuals can transform a boring and potentially irrelevant piece of data into an interesting and thought provoking learning experience. The video did a great job of explaining that idea and providing examples of various successes.
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