Richard Saul Wurman, creator of the TED conferences, coined the phrase “information architect” in 1976, saying:
“I thought the explosion of data needed an architecture, needed a series of systems, needed systematic design, a series of performance criteria to measure it.”
So, this is not entirely new.
In fact, cartographers have been mapping data for a long time, possibly 8,000 years. We could even say that any image, any written word, any sound, and so on, is a representation of data.
But let’s focus.
When I say “The New Journalism”, I’m talking, in part, about what you and I are now doing. For example, 11% of Americans report owning some form of tablet device. 77% of tablet owners use them daily, and 53% get news on a tablet every day, according to the non-partisan Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
But hey, why read that paragraph when you can understand faster with an infographic?
Wurman’s proposed response to “the [1976] explosion of data” – in the context of the 2012 frequency and volume of web/cloud publishing – stresses existing factors:
Volume requires accuracy and trust. Otherwise we can’t tell claims from facts.
Frequency requires reader-centered design. Otherwise it takes too much time to understand as much as we want to understand.
Those who can publish accurate information using reader-centered design can rely less on getting news coverage; to an increasing extent, we can become a direct source of trusted news.
Direct journalism, merging unbiased research with data visualization as narrative, is a plausible outcome of current trends. Granted, trust will require filters – ideally self-imposed.
Those who worry that the web threatens journalism may find that the web simply requires adaptation.
And yes, there are things only words can express.
For further reading:
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, by Edward Tufte
Many of the books Richard Saul Wurman has written