In a time of extraordinary complexity, the idea of what makes a great journalist is changing. It is not just about telling stories well – there are any number of great writers out there. Being first with news is not enough either, unless you define great journalism as beating the opposition by a seconds on a story that will break anyway.
Arguably, the best journalists now, the most valuable journalists, the ones we need the most – are those able to deconstruct lies and spin and self-serving publicity through the use of data. Think of George Megalogenis at The Australian or Laura Tingle at the AFR or Peter Martin of The Age. But most of all think of someone not considered a journalist in the traditional sense, Scott Steel AKA blogger Possum Comitatus.
Possum has had more ‘scoops’ than most journalists have in a lifetime. And by ‘scoops’, I mean analysis that completely lifts the lid on a contentious story through old fashioned techniques like, err, uncovering facts and evidence and numbers that wreck a pre-ordained media narrative. Possum’s modus operandi is deconstructing self-serving spin or, more usually, ripping to shreds the lazy journalism behind half-baked ‘analysis’ of stories based on numbers. Think of his expose of the media’s complete misrepresentation of the inquiry into the BER program or his detailed analysis showing how much of a wilful beat-up was the “pink batts” scandal.
In an election campaign dominated by often bogus and distorted claims over numbers – think of the federal budget position or the resources tax or refugee statistics – it is Possum’s combination of sceptical intelligence, determination, literacy, humour and a mastery and understanding of data that is most vital in journalism. And we need more of him.
Anyone who doubts this trend should read a commanding report, released last week at the annual congress of the International Press Institute in Vienna. Among many things, the 152-page document, “Brave New Worlds: Navigating the New Media Landscape,” (PDF) charts a potentially fruitful new era for journalism based around collaboration between traditional journalists and a new breed of “data” journalists, like Possum, that can challenge power through the use of freely available data over the web.
“Data journalism takes in a huge range of disciplines, from Computer Assisted Reporting and programming, to visualisation and statistics. If you are a journalist with a strength in one of those areas, you are currently exceptional. This cannot last for long: The industry will have to skill up, or it will have nothing left to sell.
“Because while news organisations for years made a business out of being a middleman processing content between commerce and consumers, and government and citizens, the Internet has made that business model obsolete. It is not enough any more for a journalist to simply be good at writing or rewriting. There are a million others out there who can write better – large numbers of them working in PR, marketing, or government.
“While we will always need professional storytellers, many journalists are simply factory line workers. So on a commercial level if nothing else, publishing will need to establish where the value lies in this new environment, and where new efficiencies can make journalism viable. Data journalism is one of those areas.”
It is not clear whether this particular penny has dropped in the minds of local mainstream media editors. But it will. For now, it seems clear that for journalism to succeed in this new age and to rediscover its traditional role of speaking truth to power, it will have to embrace the numbers game. The business model will come later.
See also Nieman Lab’s analysis of how The Guardian is using data journalism.
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