History of Data Journalism at The Guardian
Summary
TLDRThis script explores the evolution of data journalism, tracing its roots back to the Guardian's first issue in 1821. It highlights early data presentations, such as a table of Manchester schools, and discusses the political significance of such information. The narrative progresses through time, showcasing various forms of data visualization used in newspapers, including ASCII art, maps, and charts, to convey complex information in an accessible manner. The summary also touches on the use of graphics for reassurance during WWII and the rapid data visualization capabilities in modern journalism, exemplified by the mapping of meteorite events post-2013.
Takeaways
- 📰 The concept of data journalism is not new; it has been a part of The Guardian's journalistic practices since its inception in 1821.
- 👀 The first edition of The Guardian in 1821 featured a data table listing schools in Manchester, highlighting the political nature of data even in early journalism.
- 🔢 Data journalism's purpose is to provide valuable insights that inform public opinion and contribute to societal progress.
- 📊 The use of graphics and visualizations to represent complex data has been a part of The Guardian's storytelling since the early 1900s.
- ✍️ The Boer War and World War I saw the newspaper using innovative techniques like ASCII art to depict military strategies and battles.
- 🗺️ Maps and diagrams were crucial in visualizing military actions and places unfamiliar to the readers, aiding in understanding the geographical context of war.
- 📈 The Manchester Guardian Commercial supplement used proportional or stacked line charts to represent complex financial data in an accessible manner.
- 🛠️ World War II-era graphics served as reassurance techniques, visually demonstrating the support and resources being provided to the UK by its allies.
- 🚀 The 1957 launch of Sputnik sparked extensive coverage, with The Guardian using diagrams to explain the satellite's orbit and significance.
- 🌐 Modern data journalism at The Guardian leverages digital tools to quickly map and analyze large datasets, such as the 2013 meteorite event near Moscow.
- 💻 The evolution of data journalism reflects technological advancements, from manual methods to interactive digital visualizations that engage audiences.
Q & A
What is the historical significance of the first edition of the Guardian in 1821?
-The first edition of the Guardian in 1821 featured one of the earliest examples of data journalism, with a table listing every school in Manchester, the number of children in each, and the cost. This was politically significant as it was 60 years before compulsory education, and it provided valuable insights into the state of education among the laboring classes.
How did the Guardian present data in the early 20th century during the Boer War?
-During the Boer War, the Guardian used innovative techniques to represent data visually. They created graphics made up of type, essentially ASCII art, to depict the structure of new South African tactics and the layout of military actions, as photographs were not yet commonly produced for the paper.
What role did data visualization play during World War I in the Guardian's reporting?
-Data visualization during World War I in the Guardian was used to illustrate military actions and the progress of the war. For instance, a chart from the Battle of the Somme depicted the groundwork of what was still to come, showing the Allies' advances and the difficult terrain they faced, providing a visual understanding of the war's progress to the readers.
Can you explain the use of data visualization in the Manchester Guardian Commercial in the 1940s?
-In the 1940s, the Manchester Guardian Commercial used data visualization to represent complex financial data in an easy-to-understand way. An example given was a proportional or stacked line chart showing the assets of London clearing banks, highlighting the importance of color in differentiating and explaining data.
How did the Guardian use data visualization as a reassurance technique during World War II?
-During World War II, the Guardian used data visualization to reassure the public. A graphic from 1943 showed symbols representing 10% of military equipment and food production from America, visually demonstrating the support the UK was receiving and aiming to reassure people about the availability of resources.
What was the significance of the visual representation of Sputnik in the Guardian in 1957?
-The visual representation of Sputnik in the Guardian was significant as it depicted the technological advancements of the time. The paper included diagrams to explain how Sputnik stayed in orbit, showing the speed required to stay above ground and orbit the planet, reflecting the public's curiosity and the media's role in explaining complex space concepts.
How has the speed of data visualization in the Guardian changed from the past to 2013?
-The speed of data visualization in the Guardian has significantly increased. In 2013, after the Russian meteorite event near Moscow, the paper was able to quickly map 54,000 meteorite events from a database due to the availability of longitudes and latitudes, showcasing the efficiency and speed of modern data visualization techniques.
What was the role of stamp duty in the cost of newspapers during the early 19th century?
-In the early 19th century, stamp duty was a significant cost factor for newspapers. It was mentioned that a four-penny stamp duty was quite expensive at the time, indicating that taxes on newspapers could be a barrier to accessibility for the public.
How did the Guardian's front pages evolve from the 1821 edition to the 1950s?
-The Guardian's front pages evolved from being dominated by advertisements in the 1821 edition to featuring more visual content and photographs by the 1950s. The paper also began to include more complex data visualizations and graphics to represent information more effectively.
What does the script suggest about the evolution of data journalism in the Guardian?
-The script suggests that data journalism in the Guardian has evolved significantly over time, from simple tables in the 19th century to more sophisticated and interactive visualizations in the 21st century. The use of data has always been integral to the Guardian's storytelling, aiming to bring stories to life and provide valuable insights to readers.
Outlines
📰 The Evolution of Data Journalism at The Guardian
The first paragraph delves into the history of data journalism, challenging the notion that it is a recent phenomenon post-2009. It highlights that journalists at The Guardian have been working with data since its inception in 1821, using innovative methods to present information engagingly. The example given is from the first edition of The Guardian, which included a table of data listing Manchester schools, their student numbers, and costs, revealing the political significance of such information at a time before compulsory education. The paragraph underscores the importance of data in understanding societal conditions and driving progress.
📈 Visual Data Representation in Historical Context
The second paragraph explores the evolution of visual data representation in journalism, starting with the use of ASCII art to depict the layout of the Boer War in the early 20th century. It discusses the challenges of conveying complex information through simple visuals, such as the use of letters and basic typography to create a graphic illustrating military tactics. The paragraph also touches on the use of maps and diagrams to represent military actions and the significance of visual aids in helping the public understand distant and complex events. It concludes with an example of a chart from the Manchester Guardian Commercial, which used color to differentiate between various data points in a stacked line chart, demonstrating the increasing sophistication of data visualization techniques.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Data Journalism
💡Visualization
💡Education Data
💡Compulsory Education
💡Industrial War
💡ASCII Art
💡Maps and Military Action
💡Proportional Stacked Line Chart
💡Reassurance Technique
💡Meteorite Data
💡Interactive Data
Highlights
Data journalism is a relatively new field, with its roots in technologies that emerged after 2009.
The Guardian has been engaging with data since its first issue in 1821, aiming to present it in interesting ways.
The first edition of the Guardian featured a table of data, listing schools in Manchester and their costs, which was politically significant at the time.
The importance of understanding data to form accurate opinions about societal progress was highlighted in the 1821 edition.
By the 1950s, the Guardian was still using innovative techniques, such as ASCII art, to represent complex information visually.
Graphics and visualizations have been used to represent military actions and unfamiliar locations, such as during the Battle of the Somme.
A chart from the Manchester Guardian Commercial in 1916 depicted the groundwork and challenges that lay ahead for the Allies.
Visualizations in the 1940s served as reassurance techniques, showing the public the support and resources being received from America.
The use of color in visualizations has evolved to aid in the differentiation and explanation of complex data.
In 1957, the Guardian covered the launch of Sputnik, exploring its implications and the public's curiosity about space travel.
A 2013 article utilized a database from the Meteorological Society to map and visualize the locations of meteorite events.
Modern data journalism benefits from the speed and interactivity of digital tools, allowing for quick and engaging visualizations.
The Guardian's early use of data journalism demonstrates the historical significance and evolution of presenting data in newspapers.
The transcript provides insights into the techniques and tools used by the Guardian to bring data journalism to life for its readers.
The importance of accurate data representation for informed decision-making and societal understanding is underscored throughout the transcript.
The evolution of data journalism at the Guardian reflects broader technological advancements and changes in media presentation.
Transcripts
data journalism is something
brand-spanking-new
it relies entirely on the technologies
of the moment didn't exist before 2009
last commonly held view but how right is
it
in fact journalists at Guardian have
been wrestling with data since the very
first issue of 1821 and have been trying
to present that data in interesting ways
to bring those stories alive for the
readers here we have the bound Edition
bound volume the very first editions of
the Guardian from 1821 in the front page
is all adverts is led by an advert for a
lost black Newfoundland dog and adverts
for the local businesses in Manchester
is seven pens which is quite expensive
in those days because four pencil that
was attacked at stamp duty you can just
about see the stamp at the top in the
corner and all the news in those days
was on the inside and in the back and
it's given to couple long time
discussing pieces and here on the back
page is Nessa the first example of
Guardian data journalism it's really a
table of data just a long table data and
the stuff now that wouldn't be
controversial essentially it's a list of
every school in Manchester with how many
children were in each school and how
much each cost girls and boys - 60 years
before compulsory education this was
incredibly political and this was leaked
to somebody known to the editor only
given here as an initial as n age no
document for similar nature has yet been
laid before the public and this is the
key quote here at all times such
information as it contains is valuable
because without knowing the extent to
which education on particularly
education that the laboring classes
prevails the best opinions which can be
formed of the condition of future
progress of society must be necessarily
incorrect I take that to mean that
unless we know and we understand what's
going on in the world through things
like this through data like this then
how can things improve and how can
things get any better
eighty years since the first edition and
front pages all again still adverts
which Carolyn to the 1950s and nicely
one obviously in the middle of the Boer
War and this is the first you know major
industrial war of the 20th century and
the paper is just full of stories as
invasion of Cape Colony and casualty
lists and so on and the first
photographs weren't really pre produced
in the garden for another few years
after this till 1905
so the the layout designers fell back
and kind of ingenious technique for
representing some there's actually quite
visual which the new Brigade structure
new South African tactics from the war
and it's a graphics to ASCII art
essentially a graphic made up of type
all of the elements on here are letters
there's the alphabet or their lines
things were being very very simple and
easy for people to reproduce in a cup a
clear way because it's quite a
complicated thing they were trying to
show where the front half battalion was
the left half the battalion that where
the major goes in those days have firing
lines at the front of a battalion and
the men here represented by these little
these little o's and more text here this
is the earliest graphic I could find go
through the archives a diagram
representation of data if you like war a
military action is one of those areas
that have always produced graphics and
visualization so often you're
visualizing places that people don't
really know about I know it's somewhere
away they've never been that often and
you're trying to show also what's
happening where so traditionally we fall
upon maps and so on and this page from
during the battle of the somme to me
showed both of those kinds of data of
visualization this was drawn in October
1916 no battle summer starting July was
supposed to be over very very quickly I
would have been an enormous kind of
military investment by the Allies and I
hadn't worked and what this shows you is
the groundwork of what was still to come
after all those months of pain and
incredible losses of life they still
have major bits of land and hills and
very very difficult land to get over and
it was the kind of pain that lies ahead
what now lies head of the Allies
advanced and its sections of the lands
you've got a little mouth showing with
its sections of lands you can really
imagine how difficult I would have
looked to people at home after all this
fighting and paying a bloodshed we've
still got to do this so this is chart
from something called the Manchester
Guardian commercial which was a regular
commercial supplement which came out
alongside the paper and this is required
of quite serious stuff about London
clearing banks assets what were their
assets made of this is a proportional or
stacked line chart which we do use
sometimes now but you can see the
importance that and the freedom that
color gives us now with all this kind of
cross hat
and differentiation and explanation
that's kind of required around it they
showed how perhaps these visualizations
are becoming ways of representing data
which is incredibly complicated and
difficult people to understand in a cut
very easy visual way so here we have
something which is quite interesting
because it's a graphic a visualization
as a reassurance technique now 1943
obviously America was in the war and
reckon with all these resources were
setting some of those resources to the
UK and some of these things were
military equipment bombers and tanks and
planes and so on so you can see here
each of these symbols represents 10% of
january to march production the other
thing that we were having as well from
america which we desperately needed was
food again which have very small amounts
that were coming to the UK so there's a
kind of graphic to reassure people that
they're going to be alright and you can
see how those graphics have moved on in
a sense from the ones we were looking at
from 1938 where they were basically
saying to people this is these are the
facts this is how you will be affected
by the war something where they're
basically saying to people you'll be all
right and look here's the visual proof
this is a rather lovely observer from
November the 10th 9:57 and the papers
are much more visual there's brilliant
picture of a volunteer at Farnborough
when we still had a space industry in
the UK and the paper is just full of
courage Sputnik what was going on what
is the motive what does it mean for us a
key question which a lot of people have
been asking themselves how do they stay
up I mean imagine a gun mounts their
tower so high it protrudes beyond where
the atmosphere ends into the vacuum of
space
and see the diagrams see how fast things
have to move to stay above ground and to
keep going around the planet so this is
something just from 2013 they're just
after the Russian meteorite hit near
Moscow and I just shows every meteorite
on that we know about we just got all
the data that we could from the
Meteorological Society which has a
brilliant database had 54 thousand
events on and that data was very good
for this because it had last twos and
longitudes in the data and meant that we
could map it in really about 10 minutes
you imagine how long it would take you
manually to draw 50,000
circles and you've got something
interactive which people can share and
they can
so we have speed on our side now in the
way that I think people would really am
be 20 or 30 years ago
you
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