The Four Building Blocks of Data-Driven Storytelling

Behind every boring, data laden clump of numbers are hundreds, thousands of interesting stories.  You want numbers to matter to your reader then it’s up to you to forge that […]

Behind every boring, data laden clump of numbers are hundreds, thousands of interesting stories.  You want numbers to matter to your reader then it’s up to you to forge that link.  You gotta make the data matter, in some way, to the reader.  Which mean:

1. Know your Audience

Your readers can, natch, WILL THEY, like my insatiable Labrador chowing down on her dog food bowl, consume big, gulping bites at big data?  Or do they want nibbles?  Do they want you to relate the data to something in their lives.

The biggest, scariest numbers in the world don’t mean a thing unless they move someone.  Which of these moves you:

  • One and half million children die each year from preventable diseases;
  • One in five children lacks access to life-saving vaccines;
  • Every 20 seconds a child dies for the lack of a simple, affordable vaccine.

The answer is a no-brainer.

2. Put a Face on the Numbers  

This is a correlation to the first point.  Numbers, even the most startling ones, need a face, a name, give the readers someone to care about.  This comes down to anecdotes. Find them. Use them.  They are your friends and the fuel for your data stories.

3. Lies, Damned Lies and Big Data

All numbers lie, to one extent or another.  A more precise way to put it is that all data comes with an inbred bias.  Yes, it does.  It’s your job to ferret out the bias, shine a spotlight on it and then go about using it in the best, most precise way possible.

As long as your readers know where the bias is, they will be, natch, they ARE smart enough to filter it out and glean the value of the data from your writing and insight.

4. Filtered Data

And speaking of filters.  YOU are the filter through which your readers consumes data.  The reader trusts you otherwise he or she wouldn’t be spending precious time reading you at all.  Do.not.let.them.down otherwise you’ll soon have no readers.

Readers are brutal in their fickleness.  And they SHOULD be fickle.  There are tens of thousands of other “voices” out there writing just what you’re writing.  What makes you so special?  It’s WHAT you write about and how you’re serving the reader by choosing those subjects.  Do.Not.Waste.Their.Time.

About brock

Brock is currently the Executive Editor at Atlantic Media Strategies and former Chief Washington Correspondent for MSNBC; he is the founder/creator/editor of CyberWire Dispatch, the Net's pioneering online journalistic news service. Previously he was the Director of Communications for the Center for Democracy & Technology, a non-profit, Washington, D.C.-based public interest group working to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. The views expressed here are his alone and do not reflect the opinions, attitudes or policy positions of his employer(s) past or present.