The word “data” isn’t typically the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of journalism and storytelling, but there’s a compelling case for data journalism’s role in storytelling. Data journalism, to me, is used data to tell stories, especially in-depth, multidimensional stories. It is sometimes hard to tell a truly in-depth story through traditional news forms, because traditional journalism isn’t rich enough to make room for all the different facets of a story. Data journalism is a much richer form of media than traditional journalism in that readers can truly interact with it. Data journalism also brings facts to the table. The “news source bias” argument can virtually be thrown out if said news source is using data to support their story. Data is factual. Numbers cannot be proven false.
