Before taking the data journalism class with Paul and James, data visualisations were just an aspect of reporting I took entirely for granted. In my mind, it was almost as if visualisations just appeared out of thin air, or they were something that could be easily done with Photoshop (Photoshop skills were, to me, the holy grail of journalism, for some reason).
If I learned anything at all this year, it’s that visualisations aren’t really done with Photoshop. So there’s that.
But really, I’ve done a lot of beginners-level visualisations this year, being too scared or too nervous to touch the hardcore stuff. This is why I’ve stuck to maps and bar charts and the occasional word cloud. But, because of this, this is why I’m absolutely floored whenever I see what I’d consider a truly brilliant visualisation.
I’m not sure if this is a new trend or not, but I am absolutely loving the recent influx of visualisations involving underground maps. It’s one of the simplest ways to frame data, but I always seem to be impressed every time I find a good visualisation.
Income inequality is a massive problem in the United States. No matter your political leaning, this is pretty much a solid, indisputable fact. South Florida, where I grew up, is a prime example of income inequality – the University of Miami, for example, was bordered by two cities, Coral Gables to its north and South Miami to the south. Coral Gables was lovely and upscale. South Miami is where UM students were (sadly frequently) held up at gunpoint, and in some places resembles a shanty town. That’s why I find income-related maps to be so important- sometimes all it takes is a different colour to really drive home income disparity in the US.
That’s why data visualisation is so important. The New Yorker just published a gorgeous visualisation combining average incomes and the New York subway stops, showing how just one line in particular can contain averages far below the poverty line and unimaginable wealth. For New Yorkers (or frequent visitors), it is an extremely effective way to drive home the article’s point – the subway is something that all but the absolute poorest and wealthiest New Yorkers use, and even if they don’t actually use it, they’re normally familiar with the lines.
“According to recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, if the borough of Manhattan were a country, the income gap between the richest twenty per cent and the poorest twenty per cent would be on par with countries like Sierra Leone, Namibia, and Lesotho,” said the New Yorker.
But that’s not really conceivable just in words, I think. This is why visualisations with a social impact are so important, and, honestly, that’s why I can’t find fault with the New Yorker’s map. Sure, the subway may have quite obviously been built in a way to connect far-off areas of New York with one another, but it’s a bit shocking that a 30-minute ride on the L can take you from 14th St & 6th Ave, with an average income of just over $150,000, to Sutton Ave in Brooklyn, with an average income of just over $12,000. I probably wouldn’t have believed it if I had just read it in a report, but seeing it on a map really drove it home.