Kenneth Cukier, data editor of The Economist and former chief technology editor of the Wall Street Journal Asia spoke not long ago about the impact of big data on the information industry and how it will change the future of journalism.

…here’s a new tool in our toolkit, it won’t replace our discrimination but it’s a new, sort of appendage with which we can work and that is, to look at the data, trust it and try to find new stories based on it; so instead of interviewing a person lets interview a database…

Do reporters today need to be computer scientists, understand software development and know statistical analysis and perhaps a wee bit applied mathematics?? Goes without saying these are all fundamental skills we look for and try to cultivate here at A Data Pro and SeeNews.

For the lecture Kenneth did for Google in 2013 after publishing “Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Work, Live and Think” head here.