You know those USA Today graphics on the front page of every section? What if someone did it for This American Life? What if we could offer appealing Christian stats in appealing formats like this?
FC: Why do you think our culture is so obsessed with infographics?
Fox: I think that a lot of people (like me) gravitate to visual things rather than a couple of paragraphs of text. If I can take some information that when written takes a couple of paragraphs to explain, and make a visualization of that, I am cutting out some serious time between the person becoming interested in the topic "ah, this information appeals to me" and their understanding of the topic "ah, I get it, I could explain this to my friend." I think that visualizing the information can make understanding the data a lot more gratifying to the reader.
I think that infographics are entering journalism much as photography entered it. At first a novelty, adopted by the forward-thinkers and appreciators of art and beautiful things. But then accepted as a necessity, another way for the reader to experience the information. A new perspective of truth on a subject. I think that infographics are an easy compliment to journalism right now. Written text, in my opinion, is not the most conducive way to explain a series of complicated statistics and numbers.
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