I found the article on “The ABC’s Data Journalism Play” to be very interesting, especially in its discussion of how data journalism really takes journalists from different fields and backgrounds to work successfully. It takes web designers, journalists, researchers, etc. to create a good story with numbers and data models, driven by the digitalization of today’s news. The interdisciplinary nature of data journalism makes it challenging but I appreciate the concept of different people with different skills coming together to make news that is accessible and educational over topics that can be difficult for the average reader to grasp otherwise. In today’s world of so-called “fake news” it is so timely that the article mentioned “it is admitted that a sound public opinion cannot exist without access to news.” We need and must have good, independent data journalism in an online world of totally biased news sources. The article asks a good (and frightening) question: “what might the world look like without a fourth estate?” The media/news is a check on our government that we absolutely must have. I feel that our democracy depends on independent news and data journalism can be the key to giving us the numbers and visual representation of those numbers to form solid opinions on the important issues we face.

The Guardian article details how news reporting and the need for certain types of news reporting has changed over time, resulting in a need for raw data. It mentioned that Wikileaks has evolved the role of data journalists, allowing them to be closer to the news-desk and ushering in a stronger relationship between the data journalists and news reporters who can bounce ideas off of each other. My generation is the online generation, so I tend to not really think about a time before data was just available with the click of a button. It is interesting to think that now anyone with a computer can go and retrieve government data and data in general on just about any topic imaginable. The role of the data journalist is so important because they break down those numbers and make them not only understandable but also interesting for the viewer. Numbers are so much more interesting when they are presented as appealing graphics and I feel that it no doubt educates more people when presented in an eye-catching way.