Open data journalism, making stories better

Data is everywhere—from government statistics to the architect creating new concepts of the world through to companies and businesses analyzing historical data for accurate projections. Similarly, the journalist must have access to data to produce reliable news and stories. By this, we mean open data access. This is the idea that some data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other mechanisms of control. It is data anyone can access, use, or share. Where journalism is telling a story, open data gives stories new perspectives, more credibility, and easier means to explain complex topics and issues to the audience. The growth of data is the next significant thing. With data, we can respond to problems around us, such as financial, transport, science and environment, natural disasters, climate change, and to which we can have structured solutions. How do we then combine data, technology, and writing in the service of telling stories about our world today and yesterday? Although journalists can go all out independently to gain such additions to their skills, curricula must move forward, and teach us more of what we need to know, show us these possibilities exist and are helpful–to face the growing trends of digitization. Traditional journalistic work is presented to the reader in its complete, hopefully perfect form, while open journalism encourages reader participation from the start. It represents a key change in the role's perception of news agencies—rather than being a sheer distributor of the news; it becomes a knowledgeable voice that steers a discussion around the news. Open journalism has the power to turn all of us into experts, each with our own unique experience, skills, and perspective that contribute to the global story, and reporters who can use the power of the web can produce stronger, better stories.