Datadoodle

Home » storytelling » Page 6

storytelling

The Dow falls, fantasies follow

by

The Dow goes down, and everyone asks why? Was it about the Chinese economy? An impending recession? The price of oil? Does anyone really know? Probably not, but that won’t stop people from telling stories that purport to explain — and some that throw fuel on the fire.

Do you find these stories as annoying as I do? Even when I know nothing of the reasons or even many of the facts, I just listen and moan. So often they have as much to do with the real cause as a cave man’s stories did about angry spirits and lightning.

Andy Cotgreave on data without emotion

by

Tableau’s senior technical evangelist Andy Cotgreave has boarded the data storytelling wagon. Actually, I don’t know how long he’s been there, but an article he wrote caught my attention today. He says that data without emotion is “worthless.” I agree!

Consider also the terrible Syrian refugee crisis affecting the Middle East and Europe. This tragedy had received a lot of attention from data journalists (e.g. The Economist back in Jan 2013), but the public didn’t truly engage until we saw the shocking photo of the drowned toddler on the beach. The impact of that single photo transformed public awareness in a way thousands of charts in news stories had not.

… Read the rest “Andy Cotgreave on data without emotion”

Stories and the natural selection of data

by

The problem with data storytelling, Yellowfin CEO Glen Rabie said to me the other day, is this: What happens to the story if the data tells a story they don’t want to tell? The data just gets wiped away. “The people who’re putting the story together will pick and choose what data to use.”

“Has it always happened?” he said. “Yes it has. Data is just another component. As purists we say that’s outrageous, but as a storyteller you say that’s legitimate.”

That’s what scares some people, mostly those who’ve led business intelligence to where it is today. Their dream of pristine truth pointing magnetic north, if not true north, turns into a bête noire as stories approach.… Read the rest “Stories and the natural selection of data”