Numbers are not boring… Boring are people who don’t know how to use them to tell a story.
Yes, we like numbers…as long as they are used in a story that makes sense and is relevant to the audience.
What is the secret to narrating with data? What is the magic behind storytelling? In this article I share the guidelines that I have learned and put into practice in five ways to tell journalistic stories with data analysis and visualization.
The first:
The numbers tell what happens while the stories build connections and context to make the facts understandable and memorable.
To tell a story with data we must try to find the anecdote, the perfect event, to hook the reader to that data that supports an investigation, an article, a visual story.
Let’s start: What is narrative with data?
It is using numbers to tell a compelling and revealing story.
What is it based on?
- in precise data
- Graphic/visual representation
- Narrative: tell the story.
Data Narrative is: The art of presenting data to enhance understanding of a topic. Let the light be made.
For the light to come and not perish in a dark cave full of fire and dragons, you need:
Accurate data (precious, as I like to call it, too)
What are they?
- They are based on honest research/gathering/methodology – NOT ALTERNATIVE FACTS or adjusted for convenience.
- Data with credibility: clean of human errors (with or without intention). Typing errors, blank spaces, missing values, zeros replacing missing values.
- Verifiable: with sources that validate if they are close to reality or that can be contrasted with others.
- Structured, that can be processed by a computer
- Meticulously analyzed. NEVER torture your data into saying what you want instead of what it does.
Graphic/visual representation
- It consists of analyzing and responding. What is the best way to present the information?
- What type of graphics will you use and why?
- How will you use photos and videos or other visual elements to draw your reader’s attention to your message?
Here is an infographic that will help you make those decisions, and that I translated last year for this website .
Finally, the narrative consists of:
tell the tale
As?
- Keep things simple, but don’t steal depth. Never underestimate the intelligence of your reader.
- Avoid fancy verbiage that means nothing. The abuse of technical language also falls into this category, which denotes that you did not understand anything about the subject or you are lazy to think in order to bring it closer to your audience.
- Edit, edit and edit.
- Respect the rules of writing and spelling
- Give clear instructions on how to use the graphics and what they are for.
- Apply the structure introduction development and conclusion.
- Maintain your audience’s interest by explaining how to solve, step by step, the problem you explained at the beginning.
How do you put all those guidelines into action? You can explore one of the projects where we practice most of these tips.
STOLEN MEMORY: the hidden stories of the looting of Costa Rica’s pre-Hispanic heritage
About this project, the Society for News Design ( SND ), which awarded us a silver medal in their global news design competition, in 2017, said:
“The work is done with exquisite taste and it is also an interesting topic. The fact that they decided to tell most of the research through graphics is very well executed. It is worth highlighting the audacity of telling such a story in this way. The graphics are very well edited and only show what is necessary. This piece is more chiseled than others and that simplicity makes it stand out”, dictates the jury’s comment.
