If we had this article assigned to us earlier in the semester, I think I’d be at a loss for what to write about. However, I’ve been reading more news articles and this article by the New York Times about racism and how it affects black men in this country visually represents data in such a fascinating way that I would have to call it my favorite data-driven piece. Everything from the ease of comprehension to the non-problematic color choices make this piece great, in my opinion. And I’m not the only one. So many people were so drawn to this animated funnel of statistics that NYT created many more visualizations, and even made an interactive tool that people can use to create their own. The idea of reading vast amounts of data, and even further- comprehending that data, is an incredibly intimidating task for your average person not working in research or statistics, say. But these interactive representations allow people to consume this data easily, and better understand what the implications of that data are. In the case of the main article, of course, it’s the disproportionate disadvantages black men in America have, especially in comparison to white men.

Another favorite encounter I’ve had with data recently is through Dear Data. Though this is not necessarily journalism, except in the purest sense of documenting happenings, I think the concept of data visualization is important. Basically, Dear Data is a project done by two data analysts, Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, over the course of a year. Every week, they created data visualizations for some part of their life and then put it on a postcard to send to the other. Again, though it’s not journalistic, I’d recommend it to anyone who’s interested in data and data visualization because it’s very interesting read and a fun growth activity, if anything. I’ve tried it, and can attest that data collection and comprehension is difficult- especially if you’re trying to quantify your own life!