May 3, 2024

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱? 𝗢𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮-𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱?

The panel at last week’s World Congress of News Media was unanimous about the importance of data, but while the enthusiasm was infectious, so was the healthy caution about how best to integrate data learnings with the daily reality of the newsroom.

“We are in a data-informed process much more than a dta-driven one”, observed Sophie Huet global editor-in-chief at AFP speaking at the World Congress of News Media last week.

From personal experience I am convinced that it’s a fine distinction, and a crucial one. Along with my colleagues at Upgrade Media we’ve been working for years with hashtag#news brands to encourage the adoption of data processes in publishing. We’ve seen first hand the initial suspicion and inevitable doubts about the role of data. We’ve reassured journalists that they weren’t being scored in some kind of beauty contest. We’ve taken the time to promise publishers that their role wouldn’t turn into endless staring at scrolling stats on screens. I have to tip my hat to the help we’ve had from ChartBeat at this point not only for the usefulness of their tools but their insistence that data collection was the way to better journalism; not tedious micro-management.

As one of the audience for the panel discussing data in London I was pleased to feel the strong sense that the power of data is now accepted, but so is a more mature understanding of how it should best be used.

So when Isabel Russ editor-in-chief of Vorarlberger Nachrichten exclaimed that; “I love data… there is so much potential in data… it’s so powerful.” I appreciate the enthusiasm, but our work in newsrooms has taught us to temper that when demonstrating the practicalities.

Sophie Huet’s insistence that “we are not watching a dashboard on a minute-by-minute basis” was every bit as important to successful implementation of data-informed publishing. Tony Gallagher, executive editor of The Times was absolutely right when he observed that “it is important that we are not dictated by data”, pointing out that otherwise they would risk only writing about the British royalty (please no). From my experience the most important comment from the panel on data also came from Tony when he reflected that “we also measure which stories aren’t doing well” because being data-dictated, rather than data-informed, runs the risk of over-prioritising the content that performs well.

It is every bit as important to pay close attention to those things that aren’t and to use the power of data to find out why.

But where things get really interesting is when the multiplying number of data points is combined with the tireless and potential of AI. More to come.

About Upgrade Media: Upgrade Media is a creative agency, strategy consultancy, training center and media transformation think tank, through its brand New World Encounters.

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◾️ Check out our Upgrade Media website to learn more about our projects and approach.

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