News 22 Nov 2017
Finnish Broadcasting Company wins the Statistics in the media competition: the interactive article tests our perception of young people
An article by Sanna Kähkönen, Eemeli Martti and Eetu Pietarinen “Kyllä ennen nuoriso oli kunnollista – vai oliko?” (Young people used to be so respectable - or were they?) won the Statistics in the media competition arranged by Statistics Finland. In the interactive article published on the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s website, the readers can test their perception of young people in different decades.
According to the award panel, the winning article illustrates even surprising statistical data in a simple but clear way.
“The competition produced a lot of entries. The common denominator is that they examine topical and interesting issues through statistics. A particular merit for this article is that it utilises statistical time series. Individual statistical data are placed in a broader context and, thus, social development is visualised,” says the panel Chair Asta Manninen.
“Digitalisation is a challenge for journalists but also an opportunity. The winning article and many other competition entries show what kinds of new ways we can find to supply information to the public,” says panel member Niina Erho from the Union of Journalists in Finland. “In an interactive article the public is offered an inviting chance to participate. Through your own realisation it is usually easier to remember information.”
“A special strength of the visualisation is that it reveals and points out the surprising characteristics of the data. The reader is committed to the topic through gamification. A controlled and illustrative article,” information designer Jussi Koponen describes.
In honour of Finland’s centenary celebrations, Statistics Finland arranged two competitions, one for the media and one for students. The objective of the competitions was to encourage versatile use of statistics and also seek new innovative ways to present statistical data. The award for both competitions was EUR 2,000.
Student competition won by a history game
The competition aimed at university and university of applied sciences students searched for the best electronic implementation to illustrate statistics. A history game called “Ennen oli kaikki …” (Everything used to be...) designed by a group of students from the University of Jyväskylä that describes the fate of people born one hundred years ago won the Illustration of statistics competition.
The students in the winning group were Veera Hasala, Juho Karppinen, Pauliina Karjalainen, Elina Rantalainen and Roope Visuri.
According to the panel, the interactive game successfully links the lives of the example individuals to the historical development in Finland.
“The game utilises statistical data, documents, photographs, historical research and recollections from people of that time in a versatile manner. The game reminds of people and the society as statistical objects and behind statistics,” says Asta Manninen.
“The visualisation of historical statistical data through an individual’s experience is a working solution. This winner also uses gamification to commit the user and to concretise the importance of statistics,” Juuso Koponen states.
Kyllä ennen nuoriso oli kunnollista – vai oliko? (only in Finnish)
Published on the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s website on 3 June 2017.
Text: Sanna Kähkönen; design and implementation: Eetu Pietarinen and Eemeli Martti
Ennen oli kaikki… history game (only in Finnish)
Working group: Veera Hasala, Juho Karppinen, Pauliina Karjalainen, Elina Rantalainen and Roope Visuri