A recent trend in media today is the increased use of infographic principles in non-traditional ways.  The technology allows it and the economics demand it, and thus, people are doing it.  While none of the seemingly innovative ideas I’ve mentioned above are completely new, they are now more possible than ever. 

For example, last month, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón published The 911 Report, A Graphic Adaptation.  Their book is in effect a timeline in comic book form.  And, in April, The Washington Post updated its Faces of the Fallen Flash page with a browsable database of US soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Developed by programmer Adrian Holovaty, this database serves as a series of fact files and allows the user to make comparisons and draw conclusions.

Whether you agree that these forms are appropriate for topics like terrorism and war is beside the point, and will be discuss in later postings this month.  What matters here is that people are doing it, and encouraging others to do it, also.  

Adopting a multi-platform strategy
The trend to innovate with how we organize information coincides directly with the changes happening in media.  As David Lieberman wrote earlier this year in USA Today, the newspaper industry has never been more ready to take risks than it is now.  Lieberman writes: “…stop the presses.  Media's sleeping giant is waking up.  Executives throughout the industry, which generated an estimated $65 billion in revenue last year, are opening their minds to a host of ideas, including new paper publications, television and radio services, websites, podcasts and transmissions to cell phones.” 

Lieberman’s reporting rings true for me, based on my own experiences and observations.  And, it is backed up by research and industry developments.  

For example, the survey The State of the Media 2006 states:  “What is clear is that 2005 solidified the reality of a multi-platform strategy; it is no longer rhetoric. Newspapers’ operations are not just about the print edition with “other” an afterthought. Increasingly companies are putting cash and focus into developing online and niche audience as the traditional one wanes.”

So, what’s happening in infographics?
The field of graphics is a major beneficiary of this new mindset in print journalism.  Newsrooms are eager to incorporate visual conventions, even when lacking expertise, resources and vision.  Some examples of what people in media are doing include taking advantage of:

    •  story-telling techniques offered by forms of art less common for news
    •  new digital and automated technology that allow greater user interactivity
    •  news packaging concepts and outsourcing
    •  convergence in the production process
    •  increased expertise & training opportunities (often self-teaching or outside the newsroom)

Journalists, artists, programmers and media managers are implementing these trends in many different ways.  This month, I will do in-depth postings on several examples, and discuss the pros and cons, as debated within the industry.

It would be a mistake to say this body of work and set of innovative ideas replace the traditional news story with some weird, anti-journalistic thing.  But rather, people are choosing highly effective and well-known conventions to improve the manner in which they provide news.  

Sources: Slate, Washington Post, USA Today, Project for Excellence in Journalism