The BBC is one of the world's leading media and news outlets. Founded in 1922, the corporation operates across various divisions, including broadcast, world service, online Journalism, and other projects. Often, both visual and online journalists must be capable of working under high pressure in a breaking news environment. Emily Maguire, the BBC's former Editorial UX Designer was among the keynote speakers at the Data Visualisation Summit in London, where she shared with us how to successfully create a visual narrative using data and release tight deadlines.
The BBC's Visual Journalism team consists of web developers, journalists, and designers. These people are responsible for telling stories by data, turning it into graphics and visual projects. The team also ensures that stories are accessible and user-friendly on all kinds of screen sizes and digital platforms. Overall, there are three main work streams where data is used: live news, world service, and visual projects.
Within live news, for example, diagrams are used to help readers understand complex stories and processes within the content. These may include a demonstration of the key parts of the human heart, how the clean air is circulated in a plane cabin, and other facts and processes. Other data viz tools help to reveal patterns and allow for exploration of the data behind stories, for example: 'When you need to compare China's population to the world's average since the introduction of the one-child policy in 1979,' Emily shared.
Among the data viz tools used at the BBC, Emily mentions annotated images which act as an easy way to enhance the story page and can be produced quickly by a journalist. They also create two types of graphics for social media channels. One of them contains bespoke illustrations and the other one is 'templated' and photography based. Both types of graphics demonstrate bite-size statistics which are shared daily across social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
However, it's not always the case that the visual journalism team has all the time in the world to produce visual material.
