porque la infografia salvara a los diarios

8/6/2019 Porque La Infografia Salvara a Los Diarios

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Diario deNoticias(Pan tp lo na, Espw1a)Diario deNoticias(Pauiptona, Spain)

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Can you imagine a newspaper articlewithout words? Or a report on politicalnews or on a session of the Davos Fo-rum presented in comic form? Is itpos-sible to cover a meeting of bank. share-holders using only Q&A,with an inserton the margin where up or down ar-rows, as done in barcmeters or moviereviews, would assess the quality of thegifts, the handout materials, the mood,the mise-en-scene. the speeches? Orhow about a presidential candidate'sbiography presented as a board garnewith space for moving forwards orbackwards?Ifyou happen to be one of those journal-ists, who, upon hearing ideas like theseholds their head in their hands in shock,believing this type of journalism can neverbe serious or reliable, then the followingproposal is not for you. I am sorry to haveto tell you this, but your attitude isproba-bly hastening the end of print journalism.Please excusemy being so straight forward.Yet,jfyou have any doubts, please allow meto explain. And if the challenge of this pro-posal intrigues you - because at the heartof it, mat iswhat I am trying to do - pleasehelpme spread the news.

We live in troubled times for the media.Or berrer put, for the prim media. Fewthings are certain and there is a great deal offear. And the worst part is that faced withsuch a situation, media companies are tak-ing only defensivemeasures. For example,the silent acceptance mat masks the usualbudget cuts or completely foreseeable newscoverage. It is the same old story. Mean-while,circulation drops and drops, while thecore of the business moves to the Internet.Iave never liked pontificating. Inorderto know what it means to put om a news-paperday after day you have got to betherein the engine room, so talk ischeap.What ishard is... But I am convinced that the coursethat OUI journalistic ship is leading directlyto an iceberg like that of the Titanic.

The Independent( Lond r es , R e iuoUnido)The IndependenttLandon, UK)

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Liberation( pa ri s. F r anci a )Liberation(Par i s , Frana)

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manera de contar la realidad, sometiendolaa los estrechos margenes de una unica na-rrativa textual.

(Til crees que es posible con tar de lamisma forma una guerra y un partido defutbol? (No piensas que el tono con el quehay que aproxirnarse a ambas realidades esradicalmente distinto, y que ese ser distintono puede limitarse a la narracion can pala-bras?

En el mundo actual, con la sociedad ac-tual y todo 1 0 que la rodea, pensar en esteperiodisrno univoco y corte de miras es con-denar a los diaries irnpresos al iceberg. Loslectores huyen porque no contamos las his-torias que demand an, pero tarnbien porqueno las contamos como las demandan. EIproblema no es solo el que, como se ha ve-nido diciendo, sino tambien, y al misrno ni-vel,el como.

Claro que para que la infografia puedacontaminar la narrativa periodistica y am-pliar sus horizontes casi ilimitadarnente hayque aceptar que la ortodoxia no existe. Des-de la experiencia de varias ediciones de losPremios Malofiej de Infografia, pienso en elconcepto estrecho que se ha manejado delgecero: cuaJquier atisbo de decoracion gra-tuita se ha criticado duramente por no ate-nerse a las reglas de los clasicos, He escu-chado muchas veces la frase magica: "Esono es infografia". Era como mentar la bicha.Quien la pronunciaba se imbuia de una au-toridad emanada del cielo infografico, y des-de esa autoridad se desacreditaban muchostrabajos de colegas. Me incluyo, (eh?

ADOLESCENCIA INFOGRAFICA:INFOGRAFlA 1.0Dejadme hacer algo de historia.

Desde luego, la infografia no naci6 conla irrupcion de los Macintosh de Apple. Pe-ro, desde luego, bastantes casas cambiarona partir de esa fecha en los diarios de todoel mundo. Los ultimos ochenta y primerosnoventa del pasado siglo significan -quien10 duda- un an tes y un despues, La era de

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What can be done? Oh, to have a crys-tal ball! But you will agree that in the news-rooms, at least in off-line media, there is toolittle self-examination and a great deal ofself-complacency: we are - they think, wethink - the bastion of quality journalism,and that can never be sunk. When in con-ferences and forums and books and reports( ... ) the imminent death of newspapers isannounced, complete with time and date,the news room never sounds the alarm. Itconcerns only those whose money calls theshots, the business leaders and directors: it'sup to them. Do I exaggerate too much if Isay that this is a frequent comment amongcolleagues worldwide, from Los Angeles toVladivostok?

Much to my regret, I have seen very lit-tle self-reflection in newsrooms. Nearly al-ways, it is the fault of someone else or of thesystem. It seems that, by and large, everyoneis gripped by resignation. Or rather, morethan resignation before a colliding with aniceberg, what reigns is some form of en-demic unawareness. We are asleep. Beyondsome stale cliches from years past, can any-one name any remedy, anything at all, thathas come up from the rank and file of jour-nalism?

Well then, and without trying to soundpresumptuous, only a courageous solutionfrom the rank and file can save daily printnewspapers and make them valuable, es-sential, and, why not say it, fun. And thatanswer, in my opinion, is what infographyhas been offering for years.

Please pay attention to my argument:only infography can save newspapers.

Why do I say this? Well, because infog-raphy offers all the tools to put an end to theclassic formula of journalism: Information= Title+Text+Photo, This formula hasworked well for many years. It has been likea security mechanism for journalists of allstripes; our route map. It has, however, be-come a uniform way of describing realityand constraining it to the strict confines ofthe textual narrative.

Do you think that it is possible to repa war and a soccer match in the same wIs it not the case that the tone needed to covey both of these realities is radically diffent, and that this required difference canor limit itself to narration with words?

Intoday's world, with today's society aeverything that surrounds it, to operatethis type of single styled, short-sighted jonalism is to condemn print newspapersthe iceberg. The readers are fleeing becaunot only are we not telling them the storthat they want, but also because we aretelling them the way readers want thembe wid. The problem is not JUSt the 'whaas it has come to be considered, but aand at the same level, the 'how'.

Of course, in order for infography tofect the journalistic narrative and extendhorizons in an almost limitless way, it is nessary to accept that orthodox), does notist- From my experience of participatingseveral years in the Malofiej InternationaInfographic Awards, I think of the narroconcept that has defined the genre: any hof gratuitous decoration has been sterncriticized for not following the rules ofclassics. Many times I heard that magiphrase: "That is not infography". Itwasbringing up an unpleasant subject theveryone wants to avoid. Whoever madecomment was imbuing himself with anthority emanating from the heavens offography and by using this authoriry, dcrediting many efforts of our colleagueAnd I have done it, too.

INFOGRAPlllC ADOLESCENCE:INFOGRAPHY 1.0Allow me to relate a bit of history.

Obviously, infography was not born wthe introduction of the Apple MacintosBut, JUStas plainly, many things changednewspapers worldwide from that momeon. The late 1980's and 90's mark, withoa doubt, a before and after. The era ofcraftsmen, those geniuses such as Pet


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The World(1;, ci: . 1 : . 1d i a r i oque J i ri g io Pul ii zer (jjillales del s ig lo ) o( IXes Wit! referenciiI/dispensable.

The Wodd (US')' 1 7 1 1 . 1 laic 1 9 1 hCentury I/CWsp"{lercreated by Pulitzersa mas te rp i ec e.


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E1Mundo(Madr id , E sp aFi a)D esde st creatio n en1989, []/Mundoaposlo decididameotepor la i ll /ogra/ 'ia.

E1Mundo(Madrid, 'pain)S in ce u s foundut ienin 1989 El Mundos tr on gly u se d g ra -phics as a tool.

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FrankfurterAllgerneinZeitung (Alema-n ia ). Descubrim ieruod el edd ig o g a l l e ricoluunano.

FrankfurterAllgemeineZeitung (Ger-many). The neu:h um an code rev ea -led.

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Dw.'!II.....- -;;;;=c.~=r=~::~-1.--=--tI.~~~ L A L I B R E L.. C. I Q U :E;: : : - 1 & 0 L"abogua l~pse" n 'a JDieu ieu ,~_:,':.:.=='--" mais g are a la ri poste_. .. ._-_ . -_ . . . . -.

La Livre Belgique(Be lg ica ) Port adapub licada el dia 1deenero de 2000.

LaLibre Belgique( B el gi um ) Rea l/ ro ll tpage 011JalluarJI lSI,2000,

los artesanos, Ja de aqucllos orfebres comoPeter Sullivan 0 elmismo Alejandro Ma-lofiej, dio paso entonces a la era de los galacticos, por emplear el simil futbolistico. 0al menos, eso parecia,

Primero fuel' on los juegos climpicos,Despues esrallo la primers guerra del Golfo. Y, can elias, los despliegues graficos,Cuanto m as grande, mejor. os directoresde los diarios mas importances abrazaronfascinados el nuevo iuguete -Ia nueva berramienta- y dedicaron todo su emperioexhibir poderio ante orros rivales, Nadie podia ser menos que nadie, nadie podia que-darse arras. jQue vengan los infografistasl

Me atreveria a decir que aquellos primeros noventa fueron la edad de oro de Iinfografia. No tanto par Jacalidad de los rrabajos cuanto par su novedad, por su enorme despliegue, per el espacio que conquis-taron y par la conviccion con que se aposraba por un genera -diriamos- reinventado, La mejor es que habia papel di pornble, [Que recuerdos!

Como en los afios de la denorninada'movida' espanola, la que protagonizarongenre como Pedro Almodovar, los infografistas bullian con propuestas fresca .rnuchas de elias disparatadas, pero en cualquiecaso alegres, desenvueltas bienintenciona-das. E impactantes, 0 era cuesticn de controlar aquel frenesi nide ponerle mucbas pegas. Al contra rio, se trataba de adentrarse eUJ1 rerrirorio magi co y ver hasta donde conducia. Por e 0, es tremendarnente injustoiuzgar esos inicios con el criteria de hoy. Lhistoria siernpre debe mirarse can 1 0 ojode cuando entonces era manana. Revisar lahemerorecas 0 echar una ojeada a los primeros volumenes Malofiej permite hacersuna idea cabal de aquella adolescencia infografica.

REGRESO A LA ORTODOXIA:INFOGRAFIA 2.0Claro, la crisis de la prensa no se habia instalado aun en el rnercado: internet apenr


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.ullivan and Alexander .\ Ialoficj, was SLl-per eded by thc cra of thc -ahiclicoS,TOLlSCa Iooiball metaphor, Or, at least, lhat is howit seemed.First there were the Olympic lame'.

Later, th e finn GulfWnr broke out. And.with them, graphic lhld-ours.Thc bigger, th eboner, The editors I l l " the leading newspa-pen. enthusiastically embraced lhi new LO y- the new 1001 and dedicated :lll their ef-forts to show off their superiori ty 0\\:1' thecompetition. No one could alrord to be lenout no one could afford 10 l ag behind, Bringon the inlographcrsl

[would eo so far as [0 say rhar the early1990's were the golden age of infography,Not so much for the quality of the work, butfo r its novelty, fill ' i[ ~ enorm ous reach. thepace it conquered and the conviction withwhich editors placed their bet on this rein-vented shall we ~ay, genre. The best thingwas that there was available paper, \X1 halgreat memories!

As had happened in those years knownas [he Spanish 'rnovida", that great cultural,artistic surge led by people like Pcd roAlmodovar infographcrs boiled with Ire 'happroaches, many of them uneven, btu fun,eloquent, and, il l any case, wcll-irucnrioned.And impressive. It was not a question 01'11')'-ing [0control [hat I'rcm:y 1101' to look lorfaults. On the contrary, the idea was to gointo mat magical realm and to sec where itwould lead. For that reason, it is highly un-fair [0 judge those beginnings from today'sp ersp ective. H istory 1 1 1US ( a Iw ay, be lookedat from the point of view o r when today wasrom rr w:rh review newspaper archives ortake :1 glace at the first .\ \: 1 lofici books a1-lows us to gain a clear idea about tile ado-Ie cence of infography,

ET iR:" 1 1 " / jnlll'Jl disl7Ili'tlllJ Ih . . Uh ,III" - JI ). I .


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balbucia y reinaba la euforia, Basta que lle-gala madurez.Y, con ella, una vuelta a Ia 01'-rodoxia, AI rnenos, en los diarios mas im-portantes. Otros locales y regionales toda-via continuaron -y continuan hoy- tta-tando de descubrir las claves del juguete. Pe-ro en los grandes se instalo una especie deoleada 'neocon'.Voces autorizadas, como heapuntado apenas antes, cornenzaron a re-damar propiedad en el usc de espacios yre-cursos. Se expandieron criticas fuertes al ex-hibicionismo, Se reivindico desde los prin-eipales foros una infografia mas pura, me-nos decorativa. Menos grafia y mas info.

Coincidio este rnovimiento -0 fue eon-secueneia de, nunca sesabe-- con una cier-ta crisis de consideracion en las redaccionesy con un arnbiente general de mayor retrai-miento, Pasado e1 fulgor, los directores pa-recieron desentenderse 0, cuando men as,interesarse mas por otras cuesriones. El pa-pel sehizo caro. Los departamentos de in-fografia trataron de ganar espacios propiosque dorninar sin depender de ninguna otraseed on. Perc aqueJlo tambien fue pasando.,Cura de humildad? (Crisis de realismo?,Resignacion?

Entre que las emociones tienden a atem-perarse y que comenzaban a vislumbrarsenegros nubarrones en el horizonte de la in-dustria, la infografia entre en el siglo XXIcon menos humos. Resituada. Y un buennumero de los grandes infografistas aban-donaron el papel en busca del futuro en in-ternet. La realidad, si se me perrnite, es quepor delante quedaba elmayor rem de todos:la autocritica periodistica, (Por que los in-fografisras se queiaban tanto cuando pecosde ellos estaban aportando realrnente valoranadido a sus trabajos y a sus medios? (Porque no reconocian que, sensibilidades ma-yores 0 menores aparte en la direccion, sumusculo periodistico era mas bien debil ysu razon de ser en la sala de mandos de lanave poco justificada? A riesgo de recibiruna cascada de criticas -sobre todo, por noser quien firma esto un infografista-, ereoque no me equivoco si digo que gran pane

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reigned. And then maturity came. And withit came a return to orthodoxy. At least, inthe most important newspapers. Other lo-cal and regional papers still continued - andcontinue today - trying to discover the se-crets ofthe toy. But in the big papers, a kindof 'nco-con' tidal wave set in. Authorizedvoices, like those Iave just mentioned, be-gan to demand propriety in the use of spaceand resources. A strong criticism against ex-hibitionism was unleashed. The main fo-rums dictated a purer kind of infographythat was less decorative. Less graphics andmore info.

This trend - or as a consequence there-of, one can never tell- coincided with a cer-tain creativity crisis in print journalism andwith a general atmosphere of retreat. Theshine wore off, and editors seemed to loseinterest, or, at least, to become more inter-ested in other martel's. Paper became moreexpensive. Infography departments tried togain their own spaces to control withouthaving to depend on any other section. Butthat also passed. Was it a humility cure? Acrisis of realism? Resignation?

At the time emotions tended to mellowand black clouds began to be glimpsed onthe horizons of the industry; hence infogra-phy began the 21st century feeling less self-centered. Repostioned. And a great numberof infographers abandoned working in pa-per to stake their claim in the Internet. Inmyopinion, the greater challenge of all re-mained to be faced: journalistic self-exami-nation. Why was it that infographers com-plained so much when so few of them werecontributing real added value to their workand to their media?\Xfhy could they not rec-ognize that, independent of support or lackthereof from editors, infography lacked jour-nalistic muscle and did not have a fully jus-tified reason of being in the eyes of the edi-torial captains of the ship? At the risk of re-ceiving an avalanche of criticism - especial-ly as I am not an infographer- I believe thatI am not wrong to say that a great many in-fographic departments settled in, hid them-

selves in their complaints, weakening theirown resolve up to the point that they wouldchase away anyone with a request, and notshowing a true interest in the news. ..Veryfew times haveIseen infographers read thenewspaper and come to meetings with pro-posals. In a situation like this, what otheroutcomes could possibly be hoped for?

This observation might sound harshand, perhaps, unfair. Nevertheless, Iknowwhat Im talking about and why Im say-ing it. And J am not wrong when Ioint atmany - but not all, ok? - infographers whohave isolated themselves and have becomea strange breed. Of course, when someonegoes to talk with an infographer and isgreet-ed by a blank look, a wrinkled nose or a 'no',they find a way do without him. And the in-fographer goes back to being dispensable.

Of course, infographers are right whenthey come back at me with the argumentsthat everyone knows about: lackofplanningin the newsroom, a lack of sensitivity, to omany hierarchies, abuses of authority, a lacka basic knowledge on what it is and what itis not infography ...

And here we are againl Wecome back tothe point of departure: what is and what itis not infography? Iwould put the questionin another way: does it work or doesn't it,does it inform or doesn't it?Because what r do know clearly it isthatinfographers are absolutely necessary fornewspapers, magazine and the Internet. Iwill try again to explain.

DECORATION ORCROSSBREEDING?:INFOGRAPIDCS 3.0It happens on occasion that juries fromsuc-cessive Malofiej Awards recognize info-graphic value and - more importantly-communicative value inworks that had beendenigrated in the past. This all began withthat Southern right whale that the unfor-gettable Jaime Serra did for Clarin in 1996.The result? ]ust take a look at some of the


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de los departamentos de infografia se aco-modaron, se enclaustraron en sus queias, seaeorazaron basta el punto de ahuyentar acuantos se acercaban a pedir algo, no rnos-traron verdadero interes por las noticias ...Pocas veces he visto infografistas que lean elperiodico y que Ueguen a las reuniones canpropuesras, As] las cosas, (que otra cosa ca-bia esperar?

Esta reflexion puede sonar muy dura y,tal vez, injusta, Sin embargo, se que digo ypor que 10 digo. Y no creo equivocarme alsefialar a muchos -no a todos, (ch?- in-fografistas de haberse aislado y de habersevuelto 'bichos raros'. Claro, cuando uno seacerca a un infografista y siempre recibe unacara larga, el morro torcido 0 un no termi-na por prescindir de eL Y el infografista vuel-ve a ser prescindible.

Par supuesto, los infografisras llevan ra-zon si me contraatacan con argumentos sa-bidos: falta planificaci6n en las redacciones,falta sensibilidad, sobran ierarquias y abu-sos de poder, falra un minima conocimien-to sabre que es y que no es infografia ...

iVa estamosl Volvemos al punto de par-tida: (que es y que no es infografia?Ya hariala pregunta de otra rnanera: (funciona 0 nofunciona?, (inform a a no informa?

Porque 1 0 que si tengo clare es que losinfografista son absolutamente necesariosen un diario, en una revista, en internet. Tra-tare de explicarrne otra vez,

c_DECORACION 0 MESTIZAJE?:INFOGRAFiA 3.0Viene sucediendo de un riempo a esta par-te que los jurados de sucesivas ediciones de)05 Malafiej reconocen valores infograficosy -mas Irnportanre=- cornunicativos a rra-baios antes denostados. Todo comenz6 enaquella ballena franca que ei inolvidableJai-me Serra hizo para Clavin en 1996. (Re-sultado? Repasad algunas de las mas re-cientes rnedalla de oro y vereis,

Hasta hace bien poco era impensableque graficos como los que presentan las re-

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vistas de la brasilefia Editora Abril (MundoE str an h o, S au de , S up er in ie re ss an te . .. ) gana-ran ningun premia. Hoy arrasan.Ya no soloes Is linea sobria y ortodoxa de T he Ne '" d JY o d ,T imes la unica valida, nimucho men os. Hayotras igualmente validas, Esto no quiere de-cir que el gran diario norteamericano esteequivocado; al contrario, Simplemente, sig-nifica que hay muchas vias y que el mesti-zaje y eleclecticisrno que caracterizan nues-tro mundo han acabado POl' impregnar tam-bien a la infografia. Imaginad si esto es as!que hasta el propio Th e N ew Y ork T im es vie-ne experimenrando de un tiempo a esta par-te can -entre OfOS- los lIamados 'opcharts' ... Internamente, no 1 3 tienen tad asconsigo: se positivamente que dentro de laseccion de infcgrafia del Times hay diferen-cia de criterios. EI futuro, sin embargo, eseclectico, Nos guste 0 no,

Estudios cientificos como el desarrolla-do poria Universidad de Lund (Suecia),presentado en una edicion reciente de losMalofiej por Kenneth Holmquist, de-muestran que la infografia esel genera quepar mas tiempo atrapa a un lector en la pa-gina. Por su naruraleza y POI'sus caracteris-ticas, los graficos arraen la curiosidad de loslecrores, que entienden bien ese lenguajefragrnentado y tremendamente visual. (Porque no aplicar entonces el mestizaje de estanueva era de la infografia a la forma de con-tar las noticias?

A rni esto me da mucho que pensar, Silos sue cos no se equivocan -y no sue len ha-cerlo-, el poder de la infografia es inmen-o y signifies literalmente que bay un mun-do de formatos por explorar. Que, en defi-nitiva, la clave esta tanto en las historias quese cuentan -esecreto de siempre- y encomo se euentan=-la novedad-: adecuarlas historias a una narrativa.

(Que signifies esto? A riesgo de que losinfografistas me acusen de estar defendien-do la pura decoraci6n, 0de volver a una epo-ca que eUos creian superada, 10que digo esque esta tesis supone, primero, el final deuna formula obligatoria y, despues, que 1a

most recent gold medal winning worksyou will see.

Unti! just a short time ago, it wasthinkable that graphs like those publishin the magazines of Editora Abril of B(Mundo Estranho, Sa/ide uperinteres an te . .. ) would win any sort of award. Tothey rake them in. No longer is the soand orthodox line of T he N ew Y ork T im esonly valid tyle; far from it. thers are eqly valid. This does not mean that the gNorth American newspaper is wrong; oncontrary. It just means that there are mroutes and that rhe crossbreeding and ecticism that characterize our world havecome to impregnate infography So muchthat recently T he N ew }0r'~Times has beexperimenting with - among other thinthe so-called cop charts' .... Internally, prions are divided: Iknow for a fact that win the infography section of the Times tis range of difference on criteria. The futhowever, is eclectic. \Whether we likenot.

Scientific studies like those undertakby the University of Lund (Swed n),sented in a recent session of the MaloAwards by Kenneth Holmquist, demstrate that infography is the genre that preaders spend the most time looking attheir very nature and characteristics, graics attract the curiosity of readers, whoderstand well this fragmented and tremdously visual language, Why not men athe crossbreeding of this new era of inraphy to the way in which the news iported?

To me, this is a lot of food for thouIf the Swedish are not mistaken - andvery rarely are -, the power of infographhuge and this means literally that thereworld of formats yet to explore. In sort,key lies as much in the stories that areponed - me age-old secret - as in howare told -the novelty -: the goal is ro astories into a narrative.

What does this mean? At the risk ofographers accusing me of defending


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IUpe1" Interessante Iml.llki;" de I " / l " ,h ' -,Mundo Estranho rosa h".liIOltllllml SI'IIS,lo HIII/n, B rasil). de /0 III,i s [ r csco Y'u s propuestus /I


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Expresso(L isboa , Por tuga l) .Paneles 1II1l11ijonllQLOindependientes paraabordar WillItosCOlli plejos.

Expresso(Li.SOOI/, Portugal)TlIIlepcJldelll IIwlli-fornuu pands toth~p"o' complexissues

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. . . . . .

oIndependente(lisboa, Portugal)C ron ic a p o li ti ca ellforuuuo annie.oIndependente( l. isbon ; Por tugcd) .Caveruge 01 1 Nationpolitics I IS il 1K C (l 1' 1( 7 0 11narratiue foruuu,68

heterodoxia no signifies necesariamentesencia de rigor 0 calidad, Defender qpuede hacer buen periodisrno a partiotros mimbres no es posicionar e en elacionalismo sino equivocar calidez yCOn viejos prejuicios. Y , de la misma foasociar nuevas formas narratives a purcoracion es olvidar las obligacionessiempre deben acornpafiar al profesio0, no defiendo un regreso a la dccorac

de la adolescencia. Reclarno una refleindividual y colectiva, de profesionaleernpresas, para tratar de recuperar lecen un tiempo en el que se lee diferente

Los lcctores no entienden de ortodoNo conocen a Playfair, ni a MinardTufte, No leen T he N ew Y ork T im es. Lotares son genre corrienre, como l1 J y cyo que valoran el tiernpo y el esfuerzoun medio hace par pr curarle un acm as faeil a Jainformacion.

Algunos diaries y revistas son conocpar haber rotos esquernas, Lo asombrocaer en la cuenta de que algunas de esabeceras 1 0 hieieron magistralmente ...mas de cien anosl [Ysin Macintosh nino! Las ediciones dorninicales del diarioWorld, dirigido par Joseph Pulitzer ales del siglo XIX, suponen a mi juiciocumbre una referencia, un modele delvo periodismo que estoy tratando depugnar en estas paginas, No hay palaPOI' supuesro estan despues revistas cFortune L'Illusoauon The Illustrated LoNeas 0-mas tarde- Colors . Todas eliamostraron en su dia y aun nos demuesboy que las posibilidades narrativas sosi ilirniradas. [Todo esta inventado!acaso 10 mas sorprendente, cs caercuenta de que el punto de vista infogrubyace en todos sus planreamienr s.

L i b e r a t i - O i l (Francia), Co r r ei a B ra zi l(Brasil) 0 The Independent (Reina Unentre OITOS, decidieron un rn a ponerar iba fundamcntalmente sus portadernplear nuevos lenguajes CODfuerteintencional 0 editorializante, siguiendestela de aquellos pi neros. Cifras, f


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decoration of advocating a return to a timetbarrheythoughr had passed, what Im say-ing is mal this thesis means, first of all, theen d of 31 1 obligatory formula and second,that hererodox..y does not necessarily entailthe absence of rigor or quality. To advocatethat itispossible to do good j urnalism fromother materials is not to position oneself insensationalism but to mistake quality andtone with old prejudices. And, in the sameway, to associate new narrative forms withpure decoration is to forget the duties thatmust always accompany the professionaljournalist.

0,Im n t defending a return (Q thedecoration of adolescent infography. Iamaskingfor an individual and collective analy-si ,both byprofe sionals and c mpanies, totry to win back readers in a time when theyar e reading in a different way.Readers do not care about rthodoxy.

They do not know about Playfair, nor Mi-nard, nor Tufte.They do not read The Newl i lrk T imes. Readers arc everyday people, likeyou and I, who value the time and effort thata media channel makes in order to give themeasier access [Q information.

Some newspapers and magazines areknown for having broken the mould. Thea maz ing th ing is [0 realize that some of theseiournals did this kilfully ... more than onhundred years ago! And without a singleMacintosh! The Sunday editions of thenewspaper The World, led by JosephPulitzer at the end of th.e 19th century, are,n my opinion m e apex, a reference, thenode! of the new media that I am trying toidvocate here. There are no words. Ofcourse, later on came magazines like r o r -"(IIe, L'lllustration, The Illustrated LondonVews or - even later - Colors . All of thesehowed in their time and still demonstrate[0us today that narrative possibilities arc al-most limitless. Everything has been invent-ed already! But, perhap the most surpris-Lng thing of all it is to realize that the info-raphic point of view underlies all of theiforemcnrioned pioneering proposals,

Liberation (France), Co r r ei a B ra ei li en s e(Brazil) and The I ndepe nde n t (United King-dom) among others, decided one day to fun-damentally turn their front pages upside andto use new languages, with stronger mean-ing and editorial capacity, following in thewake of those pioneers. umbers, phrases,photos, graphics, tables, diagrams, comics ...All tools are valid. Nevertheless, few news-papers on few occasions have allowed thinarrative tsunami to invade the inner pages.That, in my opinion, is the great pendingchallenge. And not just do it once nor onspecial occasions, but always.

INFODESIGNERS WANTEDorne of you may have been able to gucs myconclusion. Enough of protectionist or cor-porative digressions. ewspapers do norneed pure infographers or pure designers:they need infodesigners. More than that,they need infojournalists. Perhaps the termis not very elegant. Ieave it [0whoever cares[Qdo so to come up with a better term.What is important in my opinion is m econcept. Gastronomy has been revolution-ized by people like Ferran Adria the ma-gician of m e EI Bulli restaurant who hasmade it even to the cover of the The NewYOt1~Times Sunday Magazine. The print mediamust quickly begin their own revolution.And the corning media revolution is alreadycooking.

To decide how the news will be report-ed is already the key to catching readers.Rigid and pre-established schemes must bepromptly abandoned, as well as the terribledictatorship of the preliminary mock up,which inflicts so much damage on newspa-pers. TIle newspapers of m e future will beversatile surprising, multi-formatted .. . orthey will cease to be. To be sure, the news-papers of the future willhave the capacity forinterviews or exciting investigative report-ing in several deliveries and thousands ofcharacters. It all depends.

Internet offers us videos, photo galleries,

Diario deNavarra(i'amp/ona, hpalia).Agenda ell fo rm a depane! de opilli iJII1 1 1 1 If I ifonnato .

Diorio deNauarra(PuII /plol/a, Spain).A gen da o f th e n 'cckusing (.I IlIIi/lijolllalopinion palle/.

avarraI~.

C om ptos cuestiona a1 G ob iem o p or e( p ag ode 1 1 2m il lo ne s e n I aAu tovi a d elC am i no-_ .---. . _ ----------_ ._-

Diario deNavarra(Pwnplol1cl, Espaiia) .0011/ nmltiforniatp ar a m ia Jir co utex toa /11m il(fIlI"lNflCiiJII.

Diario deNavarra(PamplQl/a,Spain).Mu ltij or m ul r el ate dp a t ie I /0 a dd il/fo r-mation bad-l.f{l"Olmd.

69


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The Independent(Reina Unido). La sportadas d e e st ediario eniplcancualquier tierra-uuenta narrauua y

cons Iituyen unas or pr es a d ia ria . S uejemplo profundizal a es te la d e libe yestd siendo iniiiadoe ll l oti o e l tn u nd o .

ITHE~r=M Jddle E a st : W ho backsimmediate ceasefire?

The Independent(UK). I nd y' s c ov er suse ally narrat iuelanguage availableand are il dailysurpr i se . l oilounng

the model 0 . / l ibe inF ra n ce ; T h e I nd ep eu -d en t is b ein g 'w id el yinnuued all over theworld.

'YO,BLAm!'Overheard III the 08: The truthabout our 'speei(til'Cln(1onsllip'

n..~ J1I)(ltbtIt1~ . IUI~lwhin'l . I I&\ \u."l~mnI'hl:...i~lir.g\\'ilul rlllj.t'HHl1l;1, ; ''C l I' ' 'l ' ' 1 ~ ' n , , " " LIw 1 J ( 'k l ' " ' \j .... '"\iJI:':mnlP


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p ag in as d e Op in io ni nt ro du ci en do en e ll asgr6J iw s { op -ch art} eitt! s { r ad on ( op -a 1 ' 1 )co n datos. Otros dia-nos siguen la senda.

de haec ua riosmesas e l d iana m a siri f /uyenle del mundoha 'reoolucionado' S lI S

s'i)i;lo, E i l l i h L P c e ec ru S o lu LDn; -Ax;

porque la infografia salvara a los diarios

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