On Saturday, I attended TedxRaleigh and saw leaders in Raleigh speak about topics that were close to and far from my heart. One speaker, Jim Whitehurst (the CEO of Red Hat), hit the nail on the head when he said that the future of careers is creativity not utility. He explained that technology advancements will do the busy work in the future, but humans can do something that technology cannot, and that is thinking creatively. “Education is the new oil,” he claimed. “It will no longer be about memorizing facts, but rather how large amounts of information can be synthesized.”
Exactly. In that moment, I literally saw a lightbulb turn on (I’m not using ‘literally’ incorrect. Someone accidentally turned on a light backstage. It just so happened to coincide with my metaphorical lightbulb as well). Strategy and theory, approach and packaging- these are the concepts that will matter in the future. Scratch that- these are the concepts that apply right now.
In Journalism in the Age of Data, many arguments aligned with Whitehurst. And the fact that half of our brain is wired for visual imagery is at the core of it all. What better way to process data than through visual elements? Infographics are the fusion of both sides of the brain. They help people fully understand and process information.
Several models of packaging a plethora of information were introduced in the video, such as the martini glass structure (begin with fact-driven narrative, then open up data for personal exploration), the stepper approach (only show certain information in each level in order to avoid overwhelming), drill-down model (start generally, then dive into the details or the neighborhood that applies to the reader). And a bad example for detail-oriented messages, the ebb and flow graphic (lines showing relationship between topics).
No matter which way the information is told, the point is that there is a rise of the datajournalist. Instead of interrogating witnesses, this person interrogates the data. They process what’s important and puts it into a context. Take Google for an example. Side note, let’s always take Google for an example. Google gives you data, but then puts it into context with a graph beside it. With one of those data points independent from the data, it’s hard to understand the context in which the data point rests. Is it too high? Is it too low? This is how a data journalist influences us.
Basically, we can infer that media will rely on the visualization of data heavily in the coming years. I suspect five years down the road, data will be primarily visual with more models to build efficiently delivered messages. Despite the ease that a computer software like Many Eyes can create a visual data set, it’s the interpretation and packaging of that data that will matter. Remember, it’s not the utility of creating it, but rather the strategy and creativity behind the message.