Visualization of news stories and use of data have been identified as strategies to aid comprehension and give more insight to news stories.
Visualization can also help to gain readers’ attention instead of reading a bulky or plain text.
These were according to John Eromosele, trainer and facilitator with CodeforNigeria, while speaking during Hacks Hackers, the Monthly meet-ups for journalists to be trained on data journalism.
Eromosele while training the media practitioners on Flourish Studio said it is high time journalists began to ensure the use of data and visualizations in all their stories to aid better comprehension for the audience.
In designing viz, Eromosele said journalists could create either interactive or static viz but they must ensure the use of good colours, proper chat alignment and must quote the data source.
He also advised that for proper use of data in a news story, journalists can search for data through open data portals; collect the data, digitize it and ensure it is of good quality.
Before the session ended, all journalists in attendance had practicl sessions on visualization with Flourish studio using different templates.
