The Reuters Graphics team emerged one of the top winners in the here Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards 2019. The team swept a total of five awards, including Gold in the News and Current Affairs category with How Kerala's Dams Failed to Prevent Catastrophe, a 'visually-stunning' story that included photography, graphics and video, created by a team of nine journalists. Each entry was judged by a panel of over 50 experts, including Hollywood producers, data designers and journalists. Simon Scarr, Deputy Editor of Graphics, says that visuals play a primary role in telling the story, and not just aid readers in absorbing information. "Information graphics can deliver complex information quickly and clearly. It's easier for your brain to digest this information visually. You're also more likely to remember that information if you absorbed it that way rather than reading it," he explains. With journalists based in different offices across the world, Scarr says getting team members to come together to work on major projects isn't an issue. However, on fast-moving breaking news stories, the journalists and graphic artists from similar regions tend to work together for efficiency sake. "It's easier to produce items this way and other experts within the region are also online at the same time if we need to have further discussions," Scarr adds. The Graphics deputy editor shares that for stories to be given the visuals treatment, there has to be a compelling reason to invest the extra resources into packaging a story, and that the story is important enough for clients to want to use it on their platforms. List of awards: Gold winner News and Current Affairs How Kerala's Dams Failed to Prevent Catastrophe here Gold winner Politics and Global 10 Years here Silver winner Science and Technology Drowning in Plastic: Visualizing The World's Addiction to Plastic Bottles here Silver winner Humanitarian China's Muslim Gulag: Turning The Desert Into Detention Camps here Bronze winner People, Language and Identity Going Gray here Media Contact: tyler.thia@thomsonreuters.com [Reuters PR Blog Post]
