1. OBJECTIVITY ON THE THRESHOLD OF DATA JOURNALISM AND NARRATIVE VISUALISATION
EUGENIA LEE

2. O U T L I N E Introduction Significance & aims
Reviewing the definitions
Situating objectivity
Conclusion

3. I N T R O D U C T I O N State of data growth in the next few years
Data-driven practices part of newsrooms
Journalists now sense-makers with an ‘eye’ for news
Storytelling and aesthetic values

4. S I G N I F I C A N C E & A I M
Challenges assumptions of objectivity by arguing narratological qualities
Addresses gap in research between journalism and information design
Aims to provide specific readings of what objectivity means in both practices
Interdisciplinary consideration of literature
Data journalism is more than a transmission of information

5. R E V I E W I N G D E F I N I T I O N S
Narrowing the scope to key developments from positivism to new journalism
Facts are the product of cultural and sociological processes
Objectivity as a way to legitimise journalism as a profession
Pragmatic and ethical concept that relies on subjectivity

6. S I T U A T I N G O B J E C T I V I T Y
Facts can be ‘coloured’ by how data is culled, aggregated, and quantified
Data is not self-explanatory and interpretation is at the centre of all data analysis
So if journalists are interpreters of data, how can numbers be neutral?
Visualisation in data journalism involves conscious design choices of graphical resources
Such visualisations combine artistic and storytelling skills beyond traditional forms

7. SOURCE: ROGERS 2013

9. C O N C L U S I O N
Mechanical tools are being used in artistic ways to communicate scientific data
Subjectivity is unavoidable as it plays a part in the production of knowledge
Objectivity is the suppression of ‘will’ not the ‘self’
The data, the story, and the visualisation are subject to interpretation and bias
Neither data nor visualisation is self-explanatory, but notion of ‘objectivity’ can exist