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The media becomes an activist for democracy
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June 11, 2012, 10:23 a.m.
Reporting & Production

Good interview with Amanda Cox, who made that transition, at Simply Statistics. I love the idea of “poor man’s interactivity” (rapid paging-down in a PDF).

I’m a big believer in learning by example. If you annotate three points in a scatterplot, I’m probably good, even if I’m not super comfortable reading scatterplots. I also think the words in a graphic should highlight the relevant pattern, or an expert’s interpretation, and not merely say “Here is some data.” The annotation layer is critical, even in a newspaper (where the data is not usually super complicated).

More interviews with and presentations from Cox: here, here, here, here, and here.

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The media becomes an activist for democracy
“We cannot be neutral about this, by definition. A free press that doesn’t agitate for democracy is an oxymoron.”
Embracing influencers as allies
“News organizations will increasingly rely on digital creators not just as amplifiers but as integral partners in storytelling.”
Action over analysis
“We’ve overindexed on problem articulation, to the point of problem admiring. The risk is that we are analyzing ourselves into inaction and irrelevance.”