Making sense from a deluge of data is more crucial than ever.
Turning a deluge of data into meaningful information is more
crucial than ever. Photo: Fairfax Art and Design  Part of my
role at Fairfax Media is to use my software and data management
background, working with news editorial staff to create data-
driven journalism.  Terms such as data-driven and database
journalism can be used to imply that “normal” forms of
journalism are not data driven. This is not true and is often a
deliberate misuse of the terms to attack traditional
journalists.  Even a casual observation of my journalist
colleagues will show mountains of A5 notebooks, emails,
spreadsheets, address books and voice recording going back
years. There are literally shelves full of data surrounding us
as I write this.  The difference that data-driven journalism
implies is one of scope and scale not attitude to facts. All
good journalism is driven by facts.  The terms data-driven and
database journalism are similar but subtly different. Data-driv