Sarah Cohen, database editor for The Washington Post’s investigative team and recently named professor of computational journalism at Duke University, presented at a recent National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting conference on how reporters can use interactive graphics for exploratory reporting.
She recently talked to Steve Myers at PoynterOnline about how it can be used.
Can you describe some of the forms these visualizations take and how they have guided or improved the reporting?
Cohen: Again, most often it’s some combination of place and time. Almost any complex story will benefit from some kind of chronology. The ability to do this interactively rather than on paper has the advantage of being able to zoom in and out on specific periods of time, turn on and off various types of entries or players.
