Statistical and media truths
- Science is suspicious of unexpected findings
- News seek attention
- News consumer has hunter's fears
- Interpretation of public data involves risks
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Interpretation of public data involves risks
The conflict between the cultures of science and the media is very topical now that the exploitation of statistics and other material has developed into a new sub-genre of journalism. This new genre, called data journalism, has been made possible by the fact that public material is now not only available to officials and civil servants. Data journalism is winning ground from researchers and statisticians by analysing and reporting unrefined and uninterpreted material. In itself this development is positive: at last the information society is beginning to produce information for all the members of society.
Simon Rogers described data journalism on the website of the British daily, The Guardian, in August, as follows: "data journalism is 80 per cent perspiration, 10 per cent great idea and 10 per cent output". The percentages would be fairly apt if applied to the production of statistics. I suspect that in the work culture of journalism, the "perspiration" part of the work in reality plays a lesser role, while the "great idea" part is gaining more importance.
Rogers also says that data journalism is telling a story as well as possible. "... if data journalism is about anything, it's the flexibility to search for new ways of storytelling". Indirectly Rogers is saying that the statisticians and the scientific world have not been very good at finding the latent stories in their material.
Knowing the enthusiasm of journalists, the danger of the future is that more and more often material will be used to produce stories that are not there in the first place. Good stories, whether they are true or not, tend to stay alive, especially on the web, and for this reason data journalism should not be left exclusively to journalists. Researchers and experts should become more active as story tellers, as critics of the stories told and as partners in collaboration with the journalists.
An important source and inspiration for the column has been the Understanding uncertainty blog at http://understandinguncertainty.org/
Päivitetty 2.11.2011