We want to create a Data Desk: a team that crunches numbers to show our audience how much their grocery bill has grown, where the government is making cuts, or where the Stanley Cup rioters are from.Our charts and maps live first online, where infographics and interactive maps are very popular and likely to be shared by users on social media sites.
They'll be interactive, and in some cases narrated by the journalist who created them.
The findings will also spark conversations on radio and television platforms:
- A chart on the cost of food becomes a factoid on morning radio programs ("Did you know the price of potatoes went up 18% this year?") to kick off a segment talking to a local grower, and economist.
- A map shows where grow-ops are concentrated in the city – and where they've moved as municipalities change enforcement tactics. Our TV cameras visit the new unlucky neighbourhoods.
The time is now for this project. We have access to more data than ever before through government open-data initiatives in cities across Canada and CBC's own investigative work. There are also better (and easier) tools to visualize data online.
Other media organizations have already seen this potential, and the CBC is falling behind. For example, the Guardian and Los Angeles Times and others have dedicated teams that turn around data online quickly.
We think a Data Desk would enhance—but not duplicate—multimedia efforts already underway at CBC.ca. We would be creating value-added online elements for stories CBC is already covering.
But we'd also be using the data to find new stories to tell, on all platforms.
Not the last step, but the first.
