The Magic Data-Driven Journalism Formula = Content + Context + Design

By Amr Eleraqi

There are many ways to think about data-driven journalism. Some view it as a set of tools that enable journalists to collect, arrange, analyze, and design data.

Others view data-driven journalism as an equation: DDJ= C+C+D. Data-driven journalism equals content, plus context, plus design.

Let’s break down each component individually.

1) Content

They say content is king. In this case, the content is your data. Data is the raw material journalists use to weave their stories together. If you have data, you have options for multiple stories, but the process isn’t as easy as it looks. Turning data into insightful stories takes effort, and data isn’t always readily available.

There are three cases of data availability:

• Some countries don’t make data public, so it’s not available to journalists. In this case, the government may legally punish anyone who publishes data they aren’t supposed to have access to.

• Sometimes data is available, but it isn’t machine readable and therefore can’t be transferred easily. If data is saved as a PDF, for example, journalists have to take the time to convert the numbers and input them manually. This is almost impossible with big data sets.

• When data is available, clean, and machine readable (which is rare in Egypt), the next crucial step is data verification. Journalists need to determine the validity of the data they have found.

2) Context

Content may be king – but without context, content doesn’t have any value. That being said, context without content means nothing. It’s a two ways street. The value of data is only highlighted when it is arranged within a certain context – helping to tell the story and explain what the data means. Context is the frame in which journalists can tell their story. 

Let’s use rainfall in the Amazon as an example. Average rainfall across the whole Amazon basin is approximately 2300 mm (or ~7.5′) annually. This statistic alone doesn’t tell a story without also explaining rainfall in other parts of the world, previous Amazon rainfall data, and how the Amazon rainforest impacts the world.

3) Design

Data can be displayed in multiple ways. Spreadsheets don’t attract a reader’s attention, which is why data visualization is so important. Dataviz is a great way to for journalists to get their data’s message across. While some people still love reading text, what people really want to see is visuals.

But, flashy visuals shouldn’t be the end goal for journalists. It is more about transforming that excellent content into an engaging image. There are helpful online tools like Infogram that help journalists do just that!

Amr Eleraqi is an Egyptian journalist experienced in data journalism and information design. He has extensive experience in print, TV and online journalism. In 2012, Amr founded infotimes.org the first infographic website in the Middle East. Previously, he was an editor of Yahoo News in Dubai.