What Stories Do Data Tell?

As a data journalist at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sandra Liermann works at the intersection of statistics and storytelling. By analysing large datasets, she and her team identify patterns, for example regarding droughts in various regions of Germany or the surplus of men in rural areas in the east.

Werksgelände: What does a data journalist at the FAZ actually do?

Sandra Liermann: Could our parents really afford so much more on their salaries back then than we can today? What exactly happens to our environment when it doesn’t rain for weeks on end? How does it affect social life when there are significantly more men than women living in a particular place? We data journalists want to find answers and tell the stories hidden within datasets: to do this, we act as an interface between journalism, statistics and IT. We research, analyse and visualise large amounts of data to present complex topics in a clear and accessible way – whether through interactive graphics, storytelling formats or newly developed web applications.

What experience or skills should you bring to the job?

Anyone wishing to work as a data journalist should, above all, be curious and enjoy getting to grips with large datasets. Research skills, a certain amount of technical know-how and critical thinking are also important for finding data and drawing insights from it.
A basic understanding of statistics and some programming skills – for example, in Python or R – are an advantage, as is experience with visualisation tools.

What appeals to you about your job?

I love it when numbers suddenly tell a story. I also enjoy the variety in my day-to-day work, as I never know in the morning what the day will bring: when a breaking news story comes in, I have to create an easy-to-understand graphic under time pressure. On other days, I can spend hours sifting through datasets, testing different analytical methods or designing interactive applications.

What are the biggest challenges in your job?

The outcome of my work stands or falls on the quality of the data I have access to. However, data sets are often incomplete, distorted or difficult to access. No matter how brilliant the idea for a data journalism project may be – sometimes it fails simply because there is no suitable data available.

What has been your biggest failure in your job so far, and what did you learn from it?

My biggest failure was a data project that was far too extensive and ambitious, and where we got so bogged down in researching incomplete datasets until eventually everyone involved was completely frustrated. It helped to sit down with colleagues who weren’t involved and think about what adjustments we could make to get the project done with less effort. In doing so, we realised that, in our love of detail, we sometimes forget just how exciting even seemingly unspectacular results can be for our readers.

Sandra Liermann

… works as a data journalist in the Data and Visualisation department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She previously held the same position at the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and was awarded the Medium Magazin ‘Hidden Star Award’ in 2023. 

Share this article via: