Visual network exploration for data journalists

This chapter addresses the difficulty by suggesting a technique for the visual exploration of networks. The trick of force-directed algorithms is all the more remarkable, given that the space of networks is relative rather than absolute and that it is a consequence and not a condition of element positioning. The chapter discusses the visual exploration of networks with the aim of improving the understanding of one of the dominant visual-analytical forms of Journalists’ digital age - the network diagram - and its potential role in relation to the study and practice of digital journalism. It deals with the reflection on the knowledge-making capacities of this technique and how these compare to the insights that journalists have used in the Decodex project - suggesting that visual network exploration is a fertile area for further exploration and collaborations between data journalists and digital researchers.