What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from May 20 to 26 finds @PostGraphics‘ meticulous cataloguing of all on-screen deaths in Game of Thrones, @datajournalism‘s tips on covering the crime beat, @DIEZEIT‘s analysis of a politically diverse European Union, and a quick beginner’s guide to learning data visualization by @AlliTorban.
Guide to 6,887 Deaths in Game of Thrones
[SPOILER ALERT]. This illustrated guide to all 6,887 on-screen deaths in the now-concluded Game of Thrones series is an equally beautiful and insane endeavor. Washington Post’s Shelly Tan watched eight seasons, meticulously logged each death and illustrated them. You can download the data for this story on Github.*extreme 80-year-old narrator voice* It was the summer of 2014. I had just graduated from NU and joined WaPo, and lil ol Shelly Tan was eager to pitch her own major graphic for the first time.
"Another character bit the dust on GoT. What if I counted all of them?"
You fool
— Shelly Tan (@Tan_Shelly) May 22, 2019
Covering the Crime Beat
“Finding your next great investigative story on the crime beat begins with collecting your own data,” advises Ryan Martin of the Indianapolis Star. In this edition of the Conversations with Data newsletter, journalists suggest ways that data can inform your crime investigations.
🚓🚨🚔 If it bleeds, it leads…or so they say. Instead of limiting yourself to murder mysteries, here's 4 other angles on the crime beat: https://t.co/sCnTaOUeuB (as well as a few handy tips on using #crime data along the way) #ddj #datajournalism #CrimeNews pic.twitter.com/Xf4NLsYSDp
— DataJournalism.com (@datajournalism) May 22, 2019
Politically Diverse EU
Europe is certainly a mixed bag, with an extremely broad political spectrum ranging from leftist-socialist to far right-nationalist. Die Zeit analyzed voting patterns in recent national elections in Europe from all 28 EU member states and mapped how strong each party group is in Europe. Article in German and English.
The European election is on. This #map shows how Europe voted last time around. It's in German but you can guess most meanings. Links aussen means far left and rechts aussen means far right. The rest is easy to guess 🙂 Don't forget to vote! Source: https://t.co/R13gOjncIK pic.twitter.com/nUgsZnCS7t
— Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) May 24, 2019
How Do I Learn DataViz?
It took two years and the creation of some cringe-worthy charts for Alli Torban to go from zero knowledge about data visualization to working as a data viz designer. She wondered if there was a faster and more effective way to learn and found that one great way is to collaborate with a more skilled professional.
"We often try to learn data viz by fast-forwarding to the “fun” part of visualizing data (i.e. practicing and examples), but that can feel like stumbling through a dark room." Fundamentals first! @DataVizSociety 🙌 https://t.co/1R4TRyubwc
— Amanda Makulec (@abmakulec) May 25, 2019
Solitary Confinement
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists analyzed more than 8,400 records of immigrant detainees being placed in solitary confinement in facilities operated by the US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). Y0u can filter the data by citizenship, facility, reason of placement and days in solitary.
Great work by @antoniocuga and @KarrieKehoe — How U.S. immigration authorities use solitary confinement https://t.co/C7buZvlvFe
— Luis Velarde (@luivelarde) May 22, 2019
Data Journalism Awards Shortlist
In case you missed it, the shortlist for this year’s Data Journalism Awards is out! It includes 103 projects from 26 countries, and 73 organizations made the list. Winners will be announced at the Global Editors Network Summit, this June 13 to 15.
I have no idea who the winners of the Data Journalism Awards are going to be, but the shortlist is impressive, and added a lot of content to my "to read" list.https://t.co/vw5kDGorLn
— William Vambenepe (@vambenepe) May 21, 2019
Politically Polarized Urban America
What are the most politically segregated cities in the United States? FiveThirtyEight used each city’s 2016 election results to calculate its dissimilarity index, a number that lets us know how separated its Republicans and Democrats are from one another, and found Jackson, Mississippi, as the most polarized. Alberto Cairo mentions this story in his blog.
Which of these cities is not like the others? https://t.co/ywRu7ymQfC pic.twitter.com/kR3VMfQoJO
— Aaron Wiener (@aaronwiener) May 20, 2019
The Power of Young Voters
Deutsche Welle analyzed the impact young voters could have had if they turned up to vote for the European Parliament elections. Find the data for this story here.
Can young voters swing the #EUelections2019 ? Together, @MaxKoschyk and I had a look where and how they could matter most: https://t.co/pcrDsZJjJi #ddj https://t.co/bdRtMYB0SN
— Gianna Grün (@giannagruen) May 23, 2019
Visualizing Rich Hungarians
Hungary’s Atlatszo analyzed the annual rankings of the 100 richest Hungarians from 2002 to 2019 and visualized the change in assets and wealth of the top 25 richest over the years.
An @eltebtkmmi student project on @Atlatszo : How the wealth and rankings of the 100 richest Hungarian men and women has changed is the past 20 years? https://t.co/yVZ1bw3rc5 #ddj
— Attila Bátorfy (@attilabatorfy) May 22, 2019
What Charts Say, Mean and Do
“No chart is an unbiased view of the data.” Elijah Meeks, a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix, wrote in this year-old piece. The choices that designers make in creating charts, even as simple as picking a title, color, or whether a time series is drawn with a jagged line or a softened curve, can affect and impact readers’ impressions, he argues. Read his full series, “Data Visualization Fast and Slow,” here: Introduction, What Charts Say, What Charts Mean and What Charts Do.
Making a chart is communicating with your audience, that's why @Elijah_Meeks thinks it's important to consider not only what your chart says explicitly but also implicitly, descriptively and systematically, in order to create better #datavisualization.https://t.co/Y2QkCEj7uX
— Data Visualization Society (@DataVizSociety) May 20, 2019
Thanks, once again, to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them. The Top Ten #ddj list is curated weekly.
Eunice Au is GIJN’s program coordinator. Previously, she was a Malaysia correspondent for Singapore’s The Straits Times, and a journalist at the New Straits Times. She has also written for The Sun, Malaysian Today and Madam Chair.
For a look at Marc Smith’s mapping on #ddj on Twitter, check out this map.
