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New experiments
The Internet enables the coherent organization and display of a vast number of documents. The entire planet can access enormous quantities of data at a mouse click and sift through them as they please. Journalism contributes its expert experience, information sorting, cross-checking and validation, and presentation skills. Journalists will continue to play the role they have always played. That is, they will investigate, question, understand and help others to understand. But they will do this in an entirely new way. Notably because they are increasingly involved in a dialogue with Internet users who provide them with information, correct them and challenge them. They now also have access to new resources to broadcast their stories and adjust to requests for information from an increasingly demanding public. Many journalists are now at the heart of journalistic and technological experimentation and are trying to give birth to new individual, collective and community experiences.

"Wikileaks is one of these new experiments. It's a remarkable approach that is changing the way information available on the Internet is being used. "
Thibaut De Norre, Analyses & Communication Director, AuxiPress

A change in perspective

Today's journalists must deal with the "liberation of information" which is impacting the circulation of information and, consequently, journalism itself. The goal of data journalism is to take hold of liberated data to shed light on basic trends and give them meaning. This new journalism technique consists in collecting masses of complex data (numbers, statistics, annual reports, etc.), extracting the information deemed relevant and organising it into images. This new use, which comes on top of other forms of journalism, makes it possible to conceptualise and visualise information and to investigate and shed light on the world in a new way. Data journalism is also coming together with the renewed development of story-telling: it's really just another way to tell a story, to adapt it and to make it more interactive. More and more types of media are taking this route to return to a form of journalism in which information provides added value. Data journalism is one approach among many others.

"Data journalism takes us back to analysis that can be commented on and tied to current events. A new kind of investigation is being created. "

Thibaut De Norre, Analyses & Communication Director, AuxiPress

Conclusions

Many of today's newspaper readers, and many listeners and viewers, are moving away from traditional mass media which treat information superficially despite the fact that events are becoming increasingly complex. The appearance of innovative practices that create ideal conditions for collaborative work and the development of data journalism are an antidote to conformity and play a major role in rehabilitating information and improving journalism. These practices are both investigative and analytical and provide new opportunities to bring together the world of information and an influential public.