Can Digital Analysts learn from Data Journalism?

The Data Journalism handbook from O’Reilly is good stuff. The rise of data journalism is really great news. I’m seeing great things in Toronto. Like this piece. And this piece. And this piece. Granted, some of it is good old fashioned access to information investigative journalism. The sophistication of the analysis has increased. So has the sophistication of their mediums.

There’s a lot that digital analytics practitioners can learn from journalism. Journalists have several hundred years on all of us in terms of communicating with the public. They have to write popular things to stay in business. They’re master framers of public opinion.

There’s a lot to be learned there.

Journalists don’t communicate in excel or powerpoint. Their mediums are fundamentally different. And it’s going beyond print, type, voice, and the news reel. Some departments, like The New York Times, have developers who build one-time experiences for you to check out data and experience it. They’re using different mediums. Journalism is becoming increasingly digital. And, increasingly, data driven.

Is there something to be learned there?

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I’m Christopher Berry.
I tweet about analytics @cjpberry
I write at christopherberry.ca