7 ms·

As a developer in a newsroom who had no intention of ending up here, it is amazing to see the transition in my industry and just how many companies are eager to

by theg2 11y ago

As a developer in a newsroom who had no intention of ending up here, it is amazing to see the transition in my industry and just how many companies are eager to hire developers who understand journalism or at least are willing to partner with reporters and editors. I can't say it's what I expected to be doing but news organizations are in a period of massive change and it's an interesting space to be in.

artifaxx 11y ago
Have you worked on visualizations such as those in the article, or do you have a different position? I am very interested in this industry, but I haven't met anyone with experience there yet.
- widgetic 11y ago
  We did, but on a much smaller scale: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value_561294efe4b0768127029355 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technology_560c13e2e4b07681270024d9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technolo... Useful to tell better stories and retain readers, these widgets are also a great engagement boost. :-)
  - artifaxx 11y ago
    Yeah, I can definitely see how these widgets and visualizations make an article significantly more engaging. I am hoping to learn more so I can have some visualizations to present of data for my startup. Since we are improving people's productivity, it would provide significant value to better engage users in their data.
- theg2 11y ago
  I've worked on numerous elections, data projects, and interactives over the past few years. They're a great asset but the narrative behind them is just as important. I've had reporters say "I found some data, can we do something with it" and it's not nearly as useful as "I'm writing a story about X, how can we use this data to visualize Y to illustrate X?". It's amazing just how rare that understanding can be from traditional media folks.

by theg2 11y ago

artifaxx 11y ago

Have you worked on visualizations such as those in the article, or do you have a different position? I am very interested in this industry, but I haven't met anyone with experience there yet.

widgetic 11y ago
We did, but on a much smaller scale: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value_561294efe4b0768127029355 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/erotic-fan-fiction-value... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technology_560c13e2e4b07681270024d9 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugees-technolo... Useful to tell better stories and retain readers, these widgets are also a great engagement boost. :-)
- artifaxx 11y ago
  Yeah, I can definitely see how these widgets and visualizations make an article significantly more engaging. I am hoping to learn more so I can have some visualizations to present of data for my startup. Since we are improving people's productivity, it would provide significant value to better engage users in their data.
theg2 11y ago
I've worked on numerous elections, data projects, and interactives over the past few years. They're a great asset but the narrative behind them is just as important. I've had reporters say "I found some data, can we do something with it" and it's not nearly as useful as "I'm writing a story about X, how can we use this data to visualize Y to illustrate X?". It's amazing just how rare that understanding can be from traditional media folks.