Game of Votes: Data Journalism to Highlight Political Power in Colombia
In a healthy democracy, citizens need clear and accessible information about those who aspire to represent them. When this information is complex, scattered, or hard to interpret, the power of decision-making is weakened. This was precisely the challenge we faced when collaborating with Cuestión Pública on one of their data journalism projects: Game of Votes
The Challenge: Making the Invisible Visible
For generations, powerful political families have controlled entire regions of Colombia through intricate power networks. Their connections span politicians, businesspeople, contractors, and bureaucratic quotas that extend into all branches of government. These dynamics are essential for understanding Colombian politics, but they have remained largely invisible to the average citizen.
The challenge was clear: how could we transform mountains of complex data about public contracts, campaign financing, and power networks into accessible information for voters?
The Solution
To address this challenge, we designed an interactive web platform that turns complex data into understandable visual narratives. This report is an example of data journalism that integrates, all on one webpage:
- Interactive maps showing the geographical distribution of political power
- Detailed profiles of each individual identified in the investigation
- Visualizations of connections between politicians, businesses, and public contracts
- Databases transformed into intuitive visual formats
- A user-friendly interface that allows users to explore the information based on their interests
All of this was directly integrated into Cuestión Pública’s domain, maintaining editorial consistency and making it easy for users to navigate between investigative content and data visualizations.
The Impact
The quality and impact of this project were recognized with the 2022 LATAM Digital Award from WAN-IFRA (World Association of News Publishers) in the “Best Digital Journalism Project” category. This award validates the effectiveness of combining rigorous investigative journalism with innovative data visualization tools.
Game of Votes not only empowers voters by providing concrete tools to evaluate their representatives and make informed decisions but also serves as a benchmark for how investigative journalism can be enhanced with advanced yet accessible digital tools.
Are you working on a data visualization project to strengthen transparency or civic participation? At Datasketch, we can help you transform complex information into intuitive and accessible visualizations.
