The Data Storytelling Workbook Anna Feigenbaum, Aria Alamalhodaei PDF
Preview The Data Storytelling Workbook Anna Feigenbaum, Aria Alamalhodaei
The Data Storytelling Workbook From tracking down information to symbolising human experiences, this book is your guide to telling more effective, empathetic and evidence- based data stories. Drawing on cross-disciplinary research and first-hand accounts of projects ranging from public health to housing justice, The Data Storytelling Workbook introduces key concepts, challenges and problem- solving strategies in the emerging field of data storytelling. Filled with practical exercises and activities, the workbook offers interactive training materials that can be used for teaching and professional development. By approaching both ‘data’ and ‘storytelling’ in a broad sense, the book combines theory and practice around real-world data storytelling scenarios, offering critical reflection alongside practical and creative solutions to challenges in the data storytelling process, from tracking down hard to find information, to the ethics of visualising difficult subjects like death and human rights. Anna Feigenbaum is a Principal Academic in Digital Storytelling at Bournemouth University where she runs the Civic Media Hub, a knowl edge exchange enterprise that specialises in data storytelling for human rights, social equity, and health and wellbeing. Anna regularly publishes in media outlets and academic journals. She is a co-author of Protest Camps (2013) and author of Tear Gas (2017). Aria Alamalhodaei is an independent writer and researcher. She re ceived her Master of Arts in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She has written extensively about science, technology, and art for academic and popular publications. The Data Storytelling Workbook Anna Feigenbaum + Aria Alamalhodaei Design and typesetting: First published 2020 Minute Works by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Comics illustrations: Alexandra Alberda and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Bournemouth University Civic Media Hub website: Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business www.civicmedia.io © 2020 Anna Feigenbaum and Aria Alamalhodaei; individual contributions where named, the contributors; images, the photographers and illustrators. The right of Anna Feigenbaum and Aria Alamalhodaei to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sec tions 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explana tion without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-1-138-05210-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-05211-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-16801-2 (ebk) Typeset in Neue Haas Unica and IBM Plex Mono Publisher's Note: This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the authors. For all those becoming data storytellers V Acknowledgments T he Civic Media Hub came to life through internal funding from Bourne- mouth University for initiatives that sought to bring together academics, students and practitioners to co-create knowledge and resources. That first grant funded our 'BU Datalabs' training project in 2015 leading to many more small pockets of funding, partnerships, and creative enterprises. Together these enabled us to grow from an initial idea into an internation ally recognised Civic Media Hub. Thanks to the early dreamers who helped envision the Civic Media Hub: Einar Thorsen, Phillipa Gillingham, Duncan Golicher, Edward Apeh and Dan Jackson. Alongside them, our wonderful research assistants provided the enthusiasm and open-mindedness to bring our most bizarre ideas to life. Over the past five years we have watched them grow from RAs to esteemed collaborators and project leaders: Daniel Weissmann, Ozlem Demirkol and Alexandra Alberda, you're the heart and soul of these projects. In more recent years, Isabella Rega, Brad Gyori, Phil Wilkinson, Mike Sun derland and Andy White joined, stretching the possibilities of what we could do with data storytelling. Thanks also to Karen Fowler-Watt, Shelley Thompson and Julian McDougall for their unwavering support through all we've tried to manifest, including this workbook. Tom Sanderson from the Centre for Investigative Journalism has offered invaluable insight, energy and access to an amazing network of passion ate practitioners, many of whom are featured here. Omega Research Foundation and Public Health Dorset, we are so grateful for our adven tures in data storytelling that now fill these pages. Thanks are also due to Routledge, and particularly Niall Kennedy, who invited us to dream up a textbook unlike other textbooks. Before leaving Routledge Niall made it possible for us to co-create this workbook with our hugely talented and incredibly collaborative graphic design studio Minute Works. Partnering with Jimmy Edmondson and Dom Latham has not only led to five years of beautiful data storytelling artefacts, but also to seeing research as inseparable from how we visually communicate it to empower audiences. A huge thank you goes to everyone around the world who hosted us, partnered with us, let us do weird things at your events, encouraged our experiments and reminded us time and again that it is ok to break the moulds, challenge the canons, and refuse the silos of academia. Finally, this workbook would not be possible without our students. Teach ers are only able to be as imaginative as their pupils and institutions allow. It is a blessing to work at a university, where when you walk into a room with an emoji shit pillow and a bag of Sharpies, everyone dives right in. Contents Introduction 001 How We Came to Write this Workbook 002 The BU Civic Media Hub 003 Why Storytelling? 003 Becoming a Data Storyteller 004 Challenges to Data Storytelling Education 005 A Guide to Using this Workbook 006 Workbook Design 011 Works Cited and Further Reading 012 Spotlights 013 A Narrative Approach to Data Storytelling 017 A Holistic Approach to Data 018 Understanding Your Audience 020 Different Audiences, Different Data Stories 022 Audience Listening 026 What’s Narrative Got to Do with It? 027 Narrative in Data Storytelling 028 Types of Narrative 031 Data as Characters 034 All Data Has a Backstory 035 What is Conflict in Data Storytelling? 037 Details, Details 040 Works Cited and Further Reading 043 Spotlights 045 Activities 061 Navigating Data’s Unequal Terrain 067 The Growing Data Divide 068 How Open is Open Data? 071 Defining Big Data 074 Big Data Past and Futures 076 Counting the Uncounted 077 Data and Bias 080 Standpoints Matter 082 Data Discrimination 084 Works Cited and Further Reading 085 Spotlights 087 Activities 109 VIII Visual Data Storytelling 115 Feminist Data Visualisation 117 Challenges for Data Visualisation 120 A Quick Guide to Structuring Your Data 122 Semiotics for Data Storytelling 124 Four Pillars for Data Storytelling 126 Chartjunk 141 Storytelling with Andy Kirk’s CHRT(S) 143 The Power of Trees 149 Narrative Networks 151 Tinkering with Timelines 154 Visualising Absence 159 Learning from Comics 160 Graphic Medicine 163 Graphic Social Science 165 Multisensory Data Storytelling 166 Works Cited and Further Reading 170 Spotlights 173 Activities 193 Data Storytelling with Maps 201 Making Maps that Matter 202 Storytelling with Maps 203 The Cartographic Gaze 204 The Problem with Maps as Representations 205 Participatory Maps 208 Counter-Mapping 209 Story Mapping 210 Seeing Cartographically 212 No Symbol is Neutral 213 Contested Coordinates 214 No Platform is Neutral 215 Mapping without Maps 218 Works Cited and Further Reading 221 Spotlights 223 Future-Proof Principles 239 The Four Cs 240 Act like the Data Storyteller You Want to Be 243 Works Cited and Further Reading 244 Index 245 IX
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