If you browse through the posts in this blog, you’ll see that there are several that are related to “telling a story”, “using pictures to present data, and similar:
Because I want to be able to present data graphically, in a proper way, I have started an online course titled: “Doing Journalism With Data: First Steps, Skills and Tools“.
It’s a 5-module online (MOOC) introductory course that “gives you the essential concepts, techniques and skills to effectively work with data and produce compelling data stories under tight deadlines.”
Awfully exciting stuff! It’s actually being taught by 5 tutors (one for each module) from Britain, America, and France. Here are the five modules:
Module 1 – Data journalism in the newsroom
Module 2 – Finding data to support stories
Module 3 – Finding story ideas with data analysis
Module 4 – Dealing with messy data
Module 5 – Telling stories with visualisation
You can read more about the course here.
I’ve just started module 1 (along with 21,280 other students), and I’m keen to work my way through the rest of the modules.
At the end, I’ll give an idea what I thought of the course along with any real gems that I got out of it.
Troy Larson has written a post on Infographics that I like.
If you have read my earlier Infographic posts (here and here), you’ll know that I don’t think much of the majority of Infographics that I have seen.
Well, Troy has the same opinion:
…after surfing the web for a few minutes looking at some of these, you quickly come to the conclusion that most of them suck.
He follows this with the best comment on Infographics that I’ve ever seen…
most people wrongly think that information + graphics = infographics
And then he takes the whole “infographics” discussion to another level…he discusses an interview that Gestalt had with Francesco Franchi, the Art Director of one of Italy’s top financial newspapers.
It’s a great post. Click here to read what Troy wrote (as well as watch the video of Francesco Franchi).
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UPDATE
Also just noticed that my friend Ant Clay, from 21apps has also published an amazing post on Infographics. Definitely take a look at it!
http://www.21apps.com/uncategorized/that-aint-no-infographic/
If you have read my earlier post on Infographics, you’ll recall that I bemoaned the fact that some of the so called infographics coming out these days are just not making the grade.
This evening, my good reader, I came across a blog post that showed seventeen examples of “excellent” infographics. Initially I was excited by what I saw, but then, on closer examination, I actually discovered that while some of the infographics were, indeed, visually exciting and really “painted a picture”, some of them were just statistics with a coloured graph.
Infographic #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5 were prime examples of what I have been saying. They give you information in a great way and add value, rather than making you think “D’uh – you could have just given me the raw statistics, or information.”
Infographic #6 and #7: “D’uh – you could have just given me the raw statistics.”
Infographic #8, #9 and #10: Are great representations of the data.They made me really study them to try and get more information out of them.
Infographic #11 and #12 were poor. These were just numbers. That’s all. I wasn’t stimulated to think about what I was looking at. (In short – they were boring).
Infographic #13, #14, #15 and #16. I like these ones. The information present, again, caused me to stop, while my neurons, and synapses, sprang into life.
Infographic #17. At the risk of repeating myself “D’uh – you could have just given me the raw statistics.”
Have a look at the post (click here), and let me know, in the comments, if you agree with what I have said.