A New Kind of PR: The Graphic
I saw an interesting title the other day, Data Journalist. I would have been immediately drawn to that field of work if it had existed in Iowa J-school back in my day.
The rise of the data journalist started with the infographic. An infographic is defined by most as “a collection of imagery, charts, and minimal text that gives an easy-to-understand overview of a topic.” That means that your engineering side and your artist side need to work together. Not everyone is made to create a compelling chart, graph or infographics.
To me, this new form of communications is a simple way of making information, trends and facts accessible to all. A good graphic should tell a story in a beautiful, yet basic way. The point of a graphic should be obvious.
What’s driving this move to Data journalism? It is the rise of data. There is more data than we know what to do with. And until it is mined, analyzed and communicated, it’s just a bunch of numbers stuck in a hard drive.
Here are my favorite data journalism outlets:
- Statista
- Pew Research
- marketing charts
- eMarketer
- New York Times
When you combine the data journalists with the new aggregators (such as Morning Consult) you are getting the information your need in a way that provides perspective beyond a typical news story (such as a shooting, car crash or garage fire). You are better able to retain the information, learn from it, make decisions about your stance on that issue and then communicate it to others.
The age of the data journalist is here. Let me show you in a chart.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.