Multidisciplinary universes: telling stories with data

Journalism as a dissemination tool has made it possible to create spaces to tell stories with data that help to reinforce the sources of information. Therefore, according to Oliver Morales Agiss, editor of La Data MX and guest at the multidisciplinary Universes talk, “journalism, in general, is about data, about creating contrasts and opinions to generate direct and effective communication,” this then allows for a multidisciplinary approach.

The diversity of opinions and the importance of multidisciplinary teams offer a broader view of the data and the story you want to tell. As a result, the information “focuses more on understanding and not so much on the perception of the data,” improves communication in the media and makes it easier to understand the movements of society and citizenship. One of the examples given by Oliver Morales in the talk was the interaction with the Covid-19 data. “Never before, I believe, in history, had there been an event that put so many people in the world to see and analyze the graphs, and it has nothing to do with the number of graphs, but rather that never before had it been so important for people to have that context.” In this way, the reliable sources of information for the media were the data since it helped create a more effective communication of the situation. Still, also, it helped to clarify critical points amid the misinformation of the pandemic.

If you want to know more about telling stories with data and the work Oliver has done with a multidisciplinary team at La Data MX, we share the video, although it is recorded in Spanish, it may be useful for you.