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Data journalism is the new cutting-edge trend. Journalists, developers and user are torn between hope and despair that using data will give a well-needed boost to the journalism industry. Yet one elephant in the room remains: Will anybody pay for data graphics in a sea of free content? Fortunately there might be hope.

The fast paced nature of communication has a major drawback: Buzzwords soon become cliché and concepts are thrown into the mainstream media before they are fully developed. As a result, people’s interest in issues is replaced with dissatisfaction. Data-driven journalism (DDJ) could be journalism’s revival. While many people agree that data will enrich and create more reliable reporting, others still hold reservations.

“How is this DDJ really different from what we already have?” is the question that is often posed. Full-page infographics, that’s all there is? In response we published a post in early March entitled “Media Companies Must Become Trusted Data Hubs,” which describes a potential future for DDJ.

Will it work?

What is missing are concrete examples detailing how DDJ can make a difference. How does an increased understanding  help people make better decisions? Actions concerning buying a house, a car, or choosing an education or a career are all based on what we believe might work out. We are easily allured by the lowest apple on the tree, and give in to advertising and PR stunts which leaves most of us clueless on making the right decisions.

While there is an endless flow of news-bits and updates, it’s hard to find reliable and trustworthy information for decisions that really matter. Most “offers” are a clever mix of cheap psychological tricks (“Get a new car for just $299!”) and algorithms displaying flashy banners. A lot of this is driven by data analysis and a targeted business strategy – large companies, such as Google, Zara and McDonalds use sophisticated analytics before they pump money into campaigns.  The jungle that surrounds us is driven by data – and flashes like Las Vegas at night.

One game-changing promise of data journalism is that it could improve the industry’s standards. There is a new breed of journalists who can dig into the data, make sense of it and uncover what a situation or development really means. Aside from a few media outlets that are working in this domain, where are the pioneers who come up with innovative projects?

Digging deeper: The “Income” Project

Catherine Mulbrandon, who studied economics and worked in finance, created a website called “Visualizing Economics” four years ago. Her site has several decades of aggregated data and covers topics such as house prices, economic cycles, and inflation – aiming to clarify these issues for the layman.

To take her site to the next level, Mulbrandon developed a project called “Income,” which visualizes how people make money in the US from several vantage points. To fund the project she used “Kickstarter,” a website where new ideas can be presented to potential financial backers.

Clearly Catherine Mulbrandon found a niche market – the minimum sum needed to fund the project ($6,000) was surpassed long before the end of the funding period, and people are still putting up money. On April 15, 2011, a total of 209 backers has financed this project with over $9,000, and there are still 15 days left to contribute.

In the scheme of things this anecdote might not seem very exceptional – but it’s pretty significant to the journalism community. Mulbrandon already has the money in hand, and for the most part made more than authors make from book sales. The feedback from the Kickstarter site is very positive and supportive – the “Income” project fills a need for people to have more complete information.

Media companies must become trusted data hubs, shifting from being a distraction to providing in-depth answers. “Income” does that in practice instead of just in theory.

Behind the “Income” Project

Mirko Lorenz: First, congrats for the positive response to your kickstarter project: Did the interest surprise you, or did you hope that it would turn out like this?

Catherine Mulbrandon: While I had some hope that the project would get funded, I launched it in part because I wanted to test the idea that there is a group of people: teachers, financial planners, journalists, political bloggers, infographic lovers etc… who will pay for print versions and high-quality digital copies of my work.

How did you get the idea to start this particular blog in the first place?

I have spent several years working in the financial industry and one thing I saw, time after time, was that clients needed basic historical information about the economy in order to understand the current financial environment. However, this was often lacking in the media’s coverage of economics. At Carnegie Mellon, I created a set of posters looking at the U.S. economy for my masters thesis, and I decided to continue this work after I graduated using a blog to share it with others.

Income is actually a very central topic, relevant to everyone. Why is it that what you are planning to compile is actually not covered in a visual way by anybody – your opinion or impression?

Income was one of the subjects of my original 3 economics posters back in 2004. At the time there were very few visualizations about income but over the years it has become more popular. However, these infographics are often looking at the current income inequality, and either don’t place it in a broader historical context or they don’t look at changes to the income earned by occupation, or changes in the structure of the economy. I intend for this Illustrated Guide to be more comprehensive by gathering all of the information I can find about income in one place.

How would you describe the work that you do? A creative look at numbers? Digging deeper?

These days I have seen several labels to try to define what I do. I think a combination of information designer + data journalist is the best I can come up with.

Your particular project addresses one aspect of daily information that is not well covered: Helping people to see the context of how economic changes affect us. Why are there so few sites looking at long-term, historical data? Shouldn’t this be covered everywhere?

I think the problem is: who will pay to have this work done? The government? Newspapers and magazines? A lot of economic data is created by the government but, up until now, there has not been an incentive within government agencies to present it to the general public in an accessible way. The news media is focused on breaking news, and many places like advocacy groups have a political agenda when they present their data.

Last question: Is there any fun fact that you discovered in your work at “visualizing-economics” – in this project or previous projects?

When I started looking at income inequality I had assumed that CEOs and celebrities were the highest earning people in society earning 20, 50 or 100 million dollars in one year. A sum of money I had difficulty imaging. When I investigated further, I found out that the hedge fund managers were making over a billion dollars a year. Recently it was reported that the highest paid hedge fund manager made 5 billion.