Tableau Conference’s best data story shows how data give movements teeth

Here's a chance to get the "data stories" straight

The best story told in the recent Tableau Conference keynotes was not among the ones labeled “data story.” The best had not even been touched by an algorithm. The best actual data story was about city neighborhoods and arguments over strategies to make them more livable, all of which boiled down to the next city budget and data that changed its priorities.

They did it with a big data story. As keynote speaker David Turner put it, “Data is the collective story we tell about ourselves.”

But that story from Los Angeles wasn’t labeled a story. Instead, Tableau used the “story” label to show off its latest acquisition, the artificial narrative-teller Narrative Science.

As my friend Lee Feinberg described it in his Linkedin newsletter⁠, “Feeding America” is not a story that takes the reader through the data; rather it places a heavy burden on the reader to absorb that data and make connections…” Even worse, I say, it fails to stir a deeper part of the mind that drives emotion, and ultimately, most decisions.

A real story showed up on the same stage in “The Promise of Data” keynote⁠. There, Los Angeles-based community organizer Dr. David Turner⁠ showed how, as he put it, “data helps to give movements teeth.”

As the Covid pandemic began, the city of Los Angeles was working on its next annual budget. Turner and others saw that the proposed priorities were contrary to what they felt were the best for their communities. Turner’s group wanted to emphasize three priorities: universal aid and crisis management, reimagined, community safety and the built environment.

They prepared to make their point by gathering data with a survey of area residents. “Data helps to justify the claims that we are making, because now we know we're not imagining the abuse. We know we're not imagining the disproportionate spending. We know, as a matter of fact, that it is true and it is here.”

On stage, he told a simplified version of what was apparently a much longer story of gathering data and using it to score points among those who had direct control of the budget.

“That narrative shift worked to accomplish a couple of really concrete things [like] reallocating local [police department] dollars … to support equity based racial justice initiatives. In addition to that, it led to what we call Measure J, right along with a whole bunch of other community organizers in the reimagined [Los Angeles] coalition, to reallocate 10% of the county's unrestricted revenue for racial justice initiatives.” — Turner

What’s the difference between Turner’s story and Feeding America? Turner’s story can be imagined as a whole, whether in simplified form or in full, from beginning to end. Perhaps most important, it’s emotional as well as thought provoking. Also important, it’s easily retold. But Feeding America’s “story” is a tangle of flaccid facts that’s difficult to retell as a whole. Feeding America seems to contain many real stories, but not as generated by Tableau’s new algorithm.

As good as Tableau is, as intimate with the human mind as it may be, and as much as AI can imitate human thought, all of that is still no substitute for people themselves and their stories. Tableau’s “data stories” can light up screens and even neurons, but Turner’s kind of story can light up hearts and change minds.

David C. Turner III is an activist scholar from Inglewood, California. He earned his Ph.D. in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program at UC Berkeley, where his research focuses on youth-based social movements, political identity, and resistance to the prison regime. Beginning this fall, Turner will join the Department of Social Welfare in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA as an Assistant Professor of Black Life and Racial Justice.

What you can do

• Keep in mind that a real story, as opposed to a mere narrative, carries real human meaning. A real story starts with a narrative and then goes deeper. It works in a part of the mind where emotions stir and give reason its conviction.

• When you say “story,” mean it. An instrument with such value should have a name dedicated to it. Medical professionals name instruments, and legal professionals use specific terms for laws and cases, and business professional should reserve “story” for the specific method — and they should ignore the marketing gaslight.