Saturday 24 November 2012

Event: DataIQ Masterclass. Insight: Can we apply consumer journey mapping concepts to data journalism?


Sure we can, we just need to be mindful of the ground shaking effect it can have on newsroom cultures. 

In very simple terms, from the moment we wake up, every time we use our phones, for every journey we take, whenever we scan our club cards or as we head to the post office to send that belated card, we generate rows and rows of data. 

In part all this has been labelled Big Data. 

But while the concept of Big Data is growing older by the day, its applicabilities and the realm of possibilities they open are yet to be discovered.

Last Thursday a Data IQ masterclass in 'Driving the Customer Data Journey' aimed to shed some light on what's possible around Big Data. 

Companies including Telefonica UK, Teradata and the DMG group shared some of the data processing, modelling and analysis they completed on such data as well as their results. 

But I won't bore you with the details of the presentations. 

Instead I want to look at how, and if, some of the concepts raised regarding consumer journey mapping would reflect on data journalism. 

Telefonica's Head of Business Intelligence, Andy Day started the evening by discussing the Big Data explosion we are witnessing and the challenges it raises. Right up front he said that complexity aside, now it's the time to (1) find a path through the data and (2) create value from it. In a similar fashion a data journalist's job is to quickly cut off the garbage data, single out the story and convey it to readers in such a way that 'valuable' change is enabled. Notice any differences? Me neither. 

Further on, underlining the need to be "enabled by technology, not driven by it", Mr Day made a bold statement: "Analysts should be at the front of house." Wow, indeed. In a newsroom this would undoubtedly be a ground-breaking shift. For journalism to be led by insights, for investigations and research and why not, interviews, to be driven by data analysis, history could be made made day in day out, and, what is more, the fourth estate would be enabled to thrive again. 

Mr Day then introduced a dear idea to him, that data analysis is the "Art of the Possible" thus opening the doors to constantly identifying best practices. But added that boards of directors leading today's businesses respond to growth rather than experiments; so he went on to give the example of how Telefonica used data analysis techniques to identify the reasons behind a £12,000 monthly loss the company was incurring per one single customer. Once the model was applied they found out this particular customer found a glitch in the system and was tacking advantage of one of their bundle offers. He purchased an iPhone then took the sim out and was calling himself pretty much non-stop. The package he was on allowed this, so all Telefonica had to do was cancel that package. Long story short, Mr Day had the board's attention to bringing analysis to front of house because he was able to say 'this will save you that much money', which as stated before is what board directors respond to. 

What does this mean for data journalism? Journalists need to identify what is it that makes editors itch and then identify how data journalism can scratch that. Easier said than done right. Take an imaginary example of a typical editor who wants original, ground-breaking news on the fly and at no expense. Our typical editor thus responds to a solution that saves time and money while delivering on the story. Instantly, this adds two more dimensions to the requirements of a typical board director, but nevertheless the concept remains. If this editor had a team of analysts front of house working alongside the reporters, they could for instance shed some insight into story patterns and identify the next more likely to occur story before it develops or provided reporters shared resources in a common newsroom database a team of analysts could identify when it is best to arrange certain interviews, what does a dataset tells us in relation to others, how long it takes each reporter to produce a piece to the best of his/ her abilities on a given patch and thus enable the editors to assign the best journalist any given pitch, and the dream can go on and on...

The following speaker, Teradata's Enterprise Sales Director Peter Duffy shared some of their discoveries around social media data. As it turns out, their research shows "enjoyment drives sales" and the more fun a customer has with a product or a brand the more inclined he/she is to purchase. According to Mr Duffy there are three things a brand can do on social media to drive sales: develop games, run contests and produce fun apps. Can this be applied to journalism? Certainly if enjoyment can drive sales it should drive a good amount of eyeballs to one's story as well. But can we still tell serious stories in an entertaining way? For decades already we celebrity journalism for example has been labelled infotainment, so how can a serious data journalism story elude that? The best example that quickly comes to mind is Reading the Riots. That said it's clear newsrooms need to invest in some of these resources before benefiting from them. It requires getting to grips with business and entrepreneurship, concepts that seem to have perpetually failed when applied to our trade. 

But let me finish this on a positive note. Challenges lie ahead no doubt about that, but despite the great achievements of the likes of the Guardian, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Flowing Data, le Journal du Web, and so on, data journalism is still just dipping its toe into the realm of possibilities available. It is by far an excellent time to experiment with journalism regardless of your background. We are faced with an enormous canvas that awaits to be drawn on, the only question remaining is how are we to fill it?