In the world of constant technological innovation, journalists report on new web tools and Internet phenomenon without really understanding the data behind it or who to contact for a better understanding.

According to Nicolas White, the co-founder and CEO of The Daily Dot, data skills are necessary to interpret the way the web works. Information is plentiful, but the ability to make sense of it all of it is not. As everyday brings a new flood of data and information, the Daily Dot advises publications to hire mathematicians to gather and understand information. Degrees in the humanities are not sufficient for deep insight into digital communities. White demonstrates The Daily Dot's commitment to this principle - the first hire of the self-proclaimed "hometown newspaper of the world wide web" was not only a journalist, but also a programmer.

Data journalism can tell new stories - making complicated figures accessible for any reader, regardless of familiarity with the technology involved. The Afghanistan war logs leaked via Wikileaks contained over 92,000 rows of data on an Excel file. The Guardian's journalists used their data expertise to wade through the numbers, complimenting them with NATO information to create charts and write stories. Data constructs compelling stories if journalists are equipped to understand it.

Beyond technological expertise, journalists also need to know how to find the big players in online communities that can help shape stories. In the days of printed news, journalists had to call the right people to get the full story. Nowadays, having the right contacts remains as crucial as ever, but they must be scouted out from the digital community.

The new contacts have data skills and are important players on the web. White takes the examples of Reddit and Tumblr to explain that those who post most frequently are not necessarily the most important - Someone could post to Tumblr ten times a day, but that does not ensure that anyone reads or cares. The Tumblr style blog is, according to White, a "collection of snippets", and does not necessarily include written content. Important Tumblr users are those who are "followed" by the most people, whether they post once a week or once a day. Interaction comes most frequently through users re-blogging each other's posts, rather than engaged communication.

On the contrary, Reddit, however, is an active group of users that interact to discuss and debate. On this website, the most important users are those that are the most involved.

The Daily Dot is not the only publication to report on Internet news and technological innovation. To stay relevant, traditional papers have also devoted sections of their sites to exactly that. The WSJ has a blog called "Digits". The Guardian has also recognized the importance of incorporating data into journalism. The Guardian Datablog, which compiles data into graphs and visual , recently relocated its desk into the newsroom.

Besides hiring experts, newspapers would also benefit from educating journalists. Banks and companies retrain employees, why shouldn't newspapers? Even small seminars can help. News: rewired recently published a list of "Ten things every journalist should know about data", and the City University London has begun offering an MA that focuses on data journalism.

The Knight Foundation's annual 4.7 million News Challenge, which awards funding to good journalism ideas, was particularly generous towards data journalism tools this year. Among the data related projects, one called Overview took home $475,000 for developing visualization tools to help journalists explore large data sets. PANDA, another data project, creates easy web-based tools for journalists in order to analyze and organize data.

The role of journalism remains the same: to find, understand, and present important information to the public. Data journalism is just another means to that end. With experts on staff and properly trained journalists, the widespread availability of data is an opportunity for newspapers to explain complex events and stories.

Sources: PBS MediaShift, News: Rewired, The Guardian, Gigoam

Photo Credit: Walker Sands