The European Union is heading into its 2019 European Parliamentary elections and POLITICO Europe wants everyone to follow the election. To help, the journalism organization has announced a collaboration with Microsoft. Redmond is providing the underpinning tech for the POLITICO Europe Elections Hub.
Through the campaign trail and voting, the Elections Hub will provide a level of engagement never seen before. POLITICO is Europe's largest political publication and wants to give “unprecedented” access to the elections.
Microsoft will provide interactive data visualizations through its Power BI platform. Users will get dynamic, updated, and detailed visualization of the often-complicated European Parliamentary elections.
“Visualizing the election will make it a more meaningful event for our readers, showing them during nine months where the election is headed, and how they compare to their neighbors,” said Ryan Heath, Political Editor at POLITICO, leading this project for the newsroom.
“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.”
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Election Hub will give people the ability to see the process spanning thousands of candidates in 27 EU member states, comprising hundreds of politicians. POLITICO describes itself as non-partisan and believes it can give people a concise and unbiased view of the election process.
“At Microsoft, we are thrilled to engage with POLITICO Europe and deliver on our commitment to empower the news industry to discover and tell impactful stories,” Microsoft said in a blog post. “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.”
The Election Hub is just the start of the collaboration between POLITICO and Microsoft. Further projects will continue to leverage Power BI to show polling trends, live reports, voter turnout, and more.