There are a couple of problems preventing local newsrooms from being even the slightest bit effective when it comes to large amounts of data.
First, most local newsrooms – especially TV newsrooms – hardly have a web person, much less someone who can mine through page after page of documents and make it useful. Right now, that duty falls on a reporter or producer, who are usually in such a rush that they pull out the key nuggets and toss the rest of the data off to the side. It would be nice to make it into flashy infographics that help tell the story like the NY Times does, but the staffing just isn’t there at the local level.
Secondly, I am of the belief that local newsrooms don’t feel data are important. Sure, they don’t mind getting comments to stories (it drums up pageviews), but no one responds to those comments. They do nothing with those comments. Local news, as it is right now, could never pull off something like the Emotion Chain – even if they had the proper staffing. It’s not a priority at the local level and that is one thing that needs to change…soon.
