Shaping Ideas into Data Stories

It was the first week of the class, and one of the first readings assigned was in the Puddings. I first watched the interview with Amber Thomas about shaping ideas into data stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Awc4HxDK0

The video talks about three things. The first came was how Amber shifted from a journalist to a journalist engineer. The change in the title made me think. How different can it be because she is still writing stories? So she explains:

I collect and analyze data and do front-end web development.

That is how she explains the definition of being an engineer. Sure, it is exactly what engineers would do to realize the technology to a finished product. But why not separate the two and have the best journalist and the best front-end engineer work together? It means to specialize in one thing, not both.

I wanted to know the answer, so I went to the Puddings and read some of their posts. Those were easy to read, and very interesting articles. So I began to understand how does being a journalist engineer would be like. By learning how to code, the journlist can do so much more in their job with the power of computing. They can also better deliver their result by front end development and data visualization. However, everything is rooted on the acumen of the everyday life and society and the creativity. So, the core of being a journalist would not go away.