Interaction and data visualization in structured journalism

Abstract

The confluence of professionals specializing in interactive storytelling, information visualization, digital documentation and investigative reporting in digital newsrooms has allowed the rise of the so called structured journalism (SJ). SJ is a recent trend in digital journalism that considers the reuse, accumulation, revision and contrast of current information with archived information and associated metadata. It is defined as a system in which the information storage in databases is combined with the potential for exploitation and diffusion of digital journalism. It is a way of approaching the informational content in which direct accessibility to primary information, documents, and data is given priority, and in which the construction of the narrative is mediated by the user´s interactivity. In addition to obtaining information and writing news, structured journalism requires an efficient definition and structuring of the database in which that information is stored, the design of information layers and an interactive story.