Upping the game: why data needs to be presented better in the media
There’s one important parallel between the UK’s latest lockdown and the US election – and indeed, much of global or governmental communication – it’s the presentation of data that’s aimed to be smart and useful, but instead ends up being confusing and outdated.
I’m glad to see data being so heavily used in comms – it definitely reflects our guiding belief in Data for Everyone – but if charts, graphs and stats aren’t clear, accurate and truly designed for human understanding, they can quickly become dangerous, manipulative or confusing.
Whatever our political skews, surely we can agree on one thing: in our interconnected modern world where data plays an undoubted role in day-to-day behavioural change, broadcasters, presenters, developers, organisations and brands have a critical duty to apply the same visual and factual rigour to data communication as they do to other media.
Are old-fashioned 4:3 stats presentations on TV really good enough?
Is Fox News pre-emptively announcing the winning US presidential candidate in battleground states really good enough?
Are interactive reports that can’t survive the pinch test on mobile phones really good enough? (Yes, even you Ofcom have got this wrong)
Is the tedious “Next slide please” Powerpoint-based structure of Covid press conferences really good enough?
Just imagine if other media took this approach… How would we feel to see weather forecasts presented in Excel or TV adverts as static images with wobbly voiceovers?
It’s been 14 years since Hans Rosling delivered his seminal TED presentation on how to present hard insight in entertaining and understandable ways and his words are just as relevant today.
As for us at infogr8, we’re proud to have spent almost a decade collaborating with a diverse range of forward-thinking organisations. Now, we’re supporting the emerging wave of brands and legislative groups who are understanding the huge impact they can make when data is presented clearly, accurately and beautifully.
More than ever, this is the time for data to make all the difference – what will you do with yours?
Partner Sales Manager @ Fivetran | Alliances | Sales
4 年Totally agree! Data sometimes are presented in a way that should benefit the worldview of the broadcaster or the publisher which can lead to bias and manipulation. As Hans Rosling once said: “Forming your worldview by relying on the media would be like forming your view about me by looking only at a picture of my foot.”