analysis | Not all data journalism is created equal--here's why.

The surge of big data, on the backs of the Facebook, Gmail, and Instagram generations, has led to an explosion of information available from every corner of your life. It’s here, it’s most certainly going to stay, and it’s something journalists have been quick to catch on to. Learn it. Use it. Love it.

But not all data journalism is created equal.

Take this article from The New York Times. It provides a good example of how data journalism can help tell a story; in this instance by overlaying drab statistics against a map. But if you are at all interested in the primary elections or in New York, you'd probably be interested in the article and statistics even if it were presented as a spreadsheet rather than splashed onto a map. It is content that helps tell a story, allowing readers to better visualize that stupid sod from five blocks down electing that idiot of a candidate guaranteed to run this country into the ground! compare how voters in a particular area made an informed political choice.

However, data journalism truly shines in telling stories that would otherwise be impossible if told through another medium. This Bloomberg article on the correlation between marriage and careers provides a good counterexample: it combines an interactive chart with an interesting premise (it's essentially a horoscope grounded in statistics), inviting readers to explore a side of statistics that would otherwise be ignored. Can you imagine reading through a boring table of figures and facts discussing marriage statistics? In this instance, the content is the story.

The ultimate purpose is to inform and engage the reader. (After all, what is the point of journalism?) The most successful data journalism provides a simple reference for a complex subject and is inherently interactive, engaging the reader and by extension, “sticking” in his head. But perhaps most importantly, data journalism should be used to present information that would otherwise be unpalatable or incomprehensible without the aid of a visual.