Interview on O’Reilly Radar about the growing importance of data journalism

In January 2012 I was interviewed by Alex Howard, O’Reilly Media’s Government 2.0 correspondent, about the state of data journalism. The interview was published on 14 February on O’Reilly Radar.

Below is a snippet of the interview. You can read the full text on O’Reilly Radar.

AH: What does data journalism mean for the future of journalism? 


LB: […] Digital technologies and the web are fundamentally changing the way we do journalism. Data journalism is one part in the ecosystem of tools and practices that have sprung up around data sites and services. Quoting and sharing source materials (structured data) is in the nature of the hyperlink structure of the web and in the way we are accustomed to navigating information today. By enabling anyone to drill down into data sources and find information that is relevant to them as individuals or to their community, as well as to do fact checking, data journalism provides a much needed service coming from a trustworthy source. Quoting and linking to data sources is specific to data journalism at the moment, but seamless integration of data in the fabric of media is increasingly the direction journalism is going in the future. As Tim Berners-Lee says, “data-driven journalism is the future.”

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