Data journalism maps often look like a "hair ball"

Many times maps produced by data journalism tools look like "hair balls", argues Stephen Doig, head
of Arizona State University's Knight Chair in Computer-Assisted Journalism.

A messy hair ball doesn’t tell a story. If there is a pretty map, but if it doesn’t tell a story, it’s a bad map.

"As tools get easier, it is easier to do good stuff - but also bad stuff," Doig says.