Journalists are using more data visualizations to educate about the pandemic; here are some free tools you can use

Screenshot of US Covid Atlas home page; to enlarge, click on it; go to it here. 

The coronavirus pandemic spurred an increase in data visualizations as journalists worked to show readers trends in deaths, infections and vaccinations. A recent survey sheds light on what data visualization tools journalists have found helpful, and what challenges they've faced, Saima Sidik reports for the Global Investigative Journalism Network. We've included links to some free tools you might find useful.

Columbia University-based multimedia journalist Javier Sauras and Adrián Blanco of The Washington Post surveyed more than 50 data journalists and news-media visualization experts from around the world, including some from small newsrooms. They discussed their findings at the recent virtual Northeastern University Computation + Journalism Symposium, in which scientists, journalists, health-care providers and philanthropists discussed how the pandemic and data journalism have shaped each other.

Sauras and Blanco found that maps are the most popular data visualization, such as the US Covid Atlas made by the University of Chicago's Center for Spatial Data Science. "Survey respondents reported that — in addition to maps — bar charts and line charts were among their favorite tools for describing the pandemic, and that purple and orange were their go-to colors. Many of the journalists who were interviewed felt that the pandemic had shown their coworkers the importance of being able to put visualizations together — a silver lining for those attending the conference," Sidik reports. "Some survey respondents, particularly those from small newsrooms, said that finding reliable experts who could help them make sense of Covid-19 data had been challenging. Access to experts allowed journalists to break away from formulaic storylines and report novel information, while those without that access found themselves playing catch-up."

Dylan Halpern, principal software architect of the Covid Atlas, told attendees: "This pandemic will not be our last, and so having these sorts of accessible tools is critical." To that end, here's a list of free data visualization tools you might find useful in your coverage of the pandemic and other topics. Unless otherwise noted, the tools are free and you don't have to know how to code to use them.

Canva has free, customizable templates for infographics and charts, including ones tailored to different social media platforms.

Datawrapper provides customizable templates for graphs, charts, and certain kinds of maps.

Flourish has recently opened for free public use, but it also has a newsroom-only version, created in partnership with Google News Lab, with souped-up features.

Genially allows you to create charts, infographics, timelines, presentations and more.

Google Fusion Tables is an online database and mapping tool that helps you produce detailed data maps quickly. 

Google Public Data Explorer lets you create interactive graphics using publicly available data.

Google Spreadsheet Charts are a capability that comes with Google Sheets.

Piktochart allows you to embed customizable interactive content even if you're not tech-savvy. You can start from scratch or use one of the free templates. You can link up Excel or Google Sheets documents to populate maps and charts for easier use.

Tableau Public allows you to quickly and easily make complex data visualizations, though it can be picky about formatting.

Tableizer quickly turns your spreadsheets into an HTML table.