While searching for blogs to follow and learn from, I ran across the blog of data journalist Simon Rogers. Rogers is an accomplished journalist, a published author, and a speaker. While his primary focus is on data journalism, Rogers does not limit himself to only that topic on his blog. Rogers uses his skills in data visualization to cover lots of topics including music, politics, technology, and more. This blog is professional, polished, and very easy to navigate.
I think what inspires me the most about Rogers, is the fact that he is a published author, in addition to being a journalist. As someone who wants to someday author a fiction book series, it is encouraging for me to see that it is not impossible to be a journalist and still write books. On top of all that I am impressed that Rogers has managed to maintain his blog on top of everything else he has done.
I did not find very many mistakes in his blog. The one area that might be a weakness of the blog is the sizing of the text. The small print makes it difficult to read without having to strain a little. This is obviously a minor issue and one that could easily be fixed.
The one thing Rogers could maybe improve on is expanding the written portions of his posts. The data visualization aspect of his posts are generally the primary focus of his work, with only short written explanations accompanying them. This is understandable as Rogers is a data journalist by profession, so in many ways his focus on data should be expected. This type of blog wouldn’t necessarily fit my blogging style or skill sets, but it is still a good example of a polished site and something to strive after.
Overall, I think the quality of Rogers blog is exceptional. Everything is clearly laid out and very accessible. He has archives located in a widget on the side of his page to make it easy to locate past posts. He has a search bar located in the top right corner of the blog to further simplify navigating the site. His About Me section is one of the first things you notice when you log onto his blog, and he effectively utilizes a word cloud on his home page that reveals the type of subjects he covers most in his posts. In addition, Rogers does a fantastic job of including different multimedia aspects into his posts. Every post has a cover photo, and some posts include video or audio, while others include unique forms of data visualization. The multimedia aspect of this blog is one of its strengths. I would highly recommend anyone who is interested in data journalism to go give his blog a look. In addition to providing good examples of data journalism, Rogers also makes an effort to post helpful tips and hints for readers to take advantage of. Rogers’ blog does what I believe all good blogs should attempt to do–it highlights his own knowledge and experience while also providing insight and guidance for others.
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