Richard Humphreys |
Global nonpartisan politics and policy news organisation POLITICO Europe is using Microsoft Power BI technology to create interactive data visualisations for its new Elections hub which has been created in time for the upcoming 2019 European Parliamentary elections.
“The team at POLITICO Europe, already recognized as the most influential publication on European affairs for two of the three years since it launched, seeks to bring an unprecedented degree of education and insight to the European electorate as they navigate the complicated election process, which spans thousands of candidates and hundreds of parties across the EU’s 27 member nations,” explains Ben Rudolph, managing director of Modern Journalism at Microsoft.
“The nonpartisan organisation considers itself to have a critical responsibility to all European citizens as they consider the candidates for which they will vote, and knows it will be important to continue to be at the forefront of innovation. POLITICO Europe’s leaders worked with Microsoft to envision new ways of reporting likely outcomes of the election, and break down complex issues like coalition building, to show individual voters the impact of their vote, and draw new participants into the democratic process.”
Rudolph says Microsoft is thrilled to engage with POLITICO Europe and deliver on its commitment to empower the news industry to discover and tell impactful stories. “Together we are using technology to deliver on POLITICO’s mission and expertise in connecting the dots between EU and member states, making politics more accessible and transparent,” he said.
Ryan Heath, political editor at POLITICO, is leading this project for the newsroom. He says that visualising the election will make it a more meaningful event for readers, showing them – during nine months – where the election is headed, and how they compare to their neighbours. “We’re encouraging readers to adopt a new way of thinking about the European Union, one where we all see beyond our borders, and want to match this new way of thinking with new ways of discovering and exploring the latest news and facts at a personal level.”
Next month, POLITICO Europe will launch country-level pages in the hub, leveraging the visualization and interactive capabilities of Power BI to share vital information about each of the 27 EU-member countries participating in the election. Microsoft and POLITICO Europe will also launch new content formats that bring discussion about the future of the EU to new and existing readers.