Dr. Kundan Aryal

It has been eight months since the COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with the life of people. It has exacerbated socio-economic hardships across the world. The situation has also posed severe challenges to the profession of journalism. Consequently, it has raised the demand for multitasking journalists. Today, the audience expects information processed through the in-depth and investigative journalism and effective visualisation of data in order to combat disinformation and rumours. This has opened up a new possibility before the mass media. A skilful blending of traditional nose for news and ability to tell a compelling story and appropriate data would expand a new horizon.
People's need for accurate information and communication in the coronavirus era will not be fulfilled by merely a superficial reporting of who said what. In this challenging time, media can revive their role with new vigour by providing real picture of new events beyond and beneath their surface. Stories can be founded on concrete evidence such as the widely available data in digital form. Data journalism, which can be defined as journalism done with data, is focused on the process of gathering and combining information from different sources. Especially, in this difficult juncture, appropriate use and visualisation of data will provide evidence-based information to the common people as well as to the office-bearers.

Media role
As the United Nations announced, the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered the biggest crisis since the World War II. It is killing people, deepening their suffering, and upending their lives beyond imagination. Indeed, it is not just a health emergency but also economic, social and humanitarian crises. Mass media can play a crucial role by informing and educating people about the pandemic and its consequences through the microscopic observation. Everyone agrees that the virus is attacking human society at its core. There is no doubt that it can be defeated with social and medical interventions. Hence, the news coverage of coronavirus breakout is not limited to merely medicines and hospitals.
Prof. Chaitanya Mishra claims that the coronavirus has not emerged from nature but it was invented. He means to say that it does not only exist in nature but the partial or whole human activities are also to blame for its surge and spread. He cites Ulrich Beck, a noted German sociologist, about risk and globalisation. Beck argues that the risk, which is inherent in modern society, will contribute towards the formation of a global risk society. He posits that the risk society is not limited to environmental and health hazards, it includes a whole series of interrelated changes within contemporary social lives.
Based on Beck’s ideas, Professor Mishra concludes that the transmission of coronavirus is also escalated by the social factors. Like bio-physical science, the social science needs to be equally applied in curbing the virus and its devastating impacts. If it is manufactured or socially generated risk, both cause and effect are not natural, and the medical science alone cannot fight against it.
Against this backdrop, mass media, with evidence-based comprehensive reporting, can play a significant role by exploring more social causes and effects concerning the pandemic. As data-driven journalism has already shown its strong presence in media landscape, the journalists are not expected to pontificate about the principles but should maximise the data journalism to provide the readers with fact-based information. It provides context and insight. It will convince and encourage people to adopt the appropriate behaviours to reduce the manufactured risks. Over the months, use of skill and visualization of appropriate data have gained a lot of visibility. Deutsche Welle, German Public International Broadcaster, states officially that more people now see the benefits and opportunities that lie in data-driven stories.
Decent data journalism is one of the keys to understanding how the virus and subsequent lockdown measures have affected the lives of the people across the world. Since data-driven stories reveal the current situation, people can draw lessons from them for their common future. In last week of this May, The Washington Post published one such story about the consequence of the pandemic. It disclosed that in New York, Chicago and District of Columbia, the coronavirus-related deaths were disproportionately affecting black and brown communities. The story also revealed that 70 of the first 100 COVID-19 victims were black, reflecting a broad racial disparity in the early toll of the virus. African Americans make up only 30 per cent of the city's population.
Likewise, a news story of the same newspaper substantiates with the quote of an expert which reads that reducing the opportunities for gathering helps folks to maintain social distancing. It is presented with catchy and comprehensive graphics to demonstrate the importance of social distancing to prevent and control the coronavirus. A simulation is presented to show the process of rapid spreading of the pandemic while convincing the public that more social distancing keeps more people healthy.
Media institutions in different parts of the world have been exploring the power of data in storytelling. They believe that extensive and effective data analysis and visualization create real-world impact. Such news stories can influence public policy outcomes in reducing the manufactured risks created in the post-modern era. The collaborative efforts of experts and journalists enable to combine data-journalism with an in-depth reporting to explain the causes and consequences of coronavirus to a wider extent.

In-depth reporting
As data and narrative writing go hand-in-hand, the data journalism can delve into different areas hit hard by the virus. For instance, journalists can make an in-depth reporting about the impacts of pandemic on the education sector. The virus breakout led to the closure of all schools across the country, leaving the students and their parents in utter dilemma. Likewise, how marginalised people are coping with the pandemic is another good topic of investigative reporting. Along with crisis, the COVID-19 has also brought new opportunity for the development of data journalism. At the heart journalism lie the efforts to investigate into the burning issues of society. Therefore, data journalism will not only add impetus to Nepali journalism but it will also serve the society through the comprehensive and factual reporting of relevant subjects and areas hard hit by the pandemic.

(Dr. Aryal is associated with the Central Department of Journalism and Mass Communication of Tribhuvan University.kalamchi@gmail.com)