Turning Data into Information

Turning data into information is the first step toward transforming data into a story. It involves extracting meaning from data.

To turn data into information, we’ll apply the following strategies:

• Explore data: We study the data by analyzing it and drawing some preparatory graphs. Then, we’ll discard graphs that are not immediately clear.

• Focus on a single message: If a message tries to say everything, it does not say anything. The audience may not understand our story correctly if we want to communicate more than a single message. We have to represent one piece at a time.

• Simplify data: We have to abstract the data as much as possible without focusing on unnecessary details.

Let’s practice!

Consider the following open-source dataset, released by Eurostat, describing the number of tourist arrivals to Italy from 1990 to 2019: