ETC5523: Communicating with Data

Tutorial 2

🎯 Objectives

• Understand structure of journalism articles
• Add data to a story to improve the impact

Introduction

You will be analysing an article from BBC World News about Japan’s ageing population. The article is available online on the BBC website here.

Form small groups (3-5 people) for these exercises.

👥 Exercise 1

1. In the article, highlight each section of the “inverted pyramid” model. Note that not all parts of the inverted pyramid may be present in the article.

2. Is this article a news feature or a news story? Why?

3. Try and write a new headline for the article that conveys a similar message. Remember the principles of concise writing when developing your new headline.

Exercise 2

With a good understanding of the content of the article, in your groups, you are tasked with finding some data to enrich this story, and producing a graphic to add to the article.

You will need to:

1. Locate a suitable data source,

2. Write code to load in the data and manipulate it into a format appropriate for visualisation,

3. Create a clear, concise graphic that supports the message of the story.

Exercise 3

Present your visualisation to the class. Explain why you chose a particular data source, and what the audience can learn from the visualisation.

Tip

Try to ensure your graphic adds to the story. You want the visualisation to give extra information to the audience.