VisualJournalism - Latest Comments

Re: The programme is ready for Malofiej 20

Alberto Cairo — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:19:11 -0000

This is very kind of you, Gert. Thanks for the nice words

Re: Crimescene Infographic – How was Ötzi killed?

maxgadney — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 16:54:50 -0000

didnt they do another earlier version of this?
http://ngm.nationalgeographic....
illustrated by the amazing (and sadly departed) Kazuhiko Sano?

Re: The barchart that doesn’t explain anything and isn’t news

Stephane Nardin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:24:39 -0000

Nice post
An alternative of the Mc Candless visualization here
http://public.tableausoftware....

Re: The barchart that doesn’t explain anything and isn’t news

Jamie Briggs — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:53:47 -0000

"MAYBE THIS GRAPHIC appeals to the purists out there? The ones who think that everything can be explained in a barchart?"

1) Nothing by McAndless appeals to the purists
2) I don't know of any purist who would ever promote the idea that everything is best explained by a bar chart.

And most importantly
3) this is the saddest excuse for a bar chart I have yet seen.
It is a useless graphic that does not illustrate it's point (or facilitate its stated purpose), is absurdly large and convoluted by it's poor use of color, it's purposeless dual-direction set up and the nonsensical bubble in the center of each bar.

This graphic is pointless in every sense, which is a shame for a chart that was purportedly intended to clarify what were some pretty sound statistical graphs.

Re: Advice from a successful infographic salesperson – let the fight begin

Gert K Nielsen — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:56:13 -0000

To make it even worse (for me) I just realize that Don'ts is a correct way to spell the headline. I have updated the article.
1-0 to Amy even if I'm not really fighting her, as she has come totally clean in the comments to her own article and admits that what she is doing is meant as linkbait. Had she called her article 'Do's and Don'ts Of Linkbait-Infographics' I think it would have been perceived differently in the community. She is the expert in linkbait after all and holds an important voice for that.

Re: Advice from a successful infographic salesperson – let the fight begin

Rich Harris — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 04:11:22 -0000

Sure, I had read the article and I too winced - I'm glad it's prompted such debate. I work for a publishing company, and lately we've had a spate of public relations people phoning up hawking 'infographics' committing many of the same sins (often including basic mathematical errors). So let the fight begin indeed. Sorry, I was a little cranky in that earlier comment.

Re: Advice from a successful infographic salesperson – let the fight begin

Gert K Nielsen — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:35:58 -0000

Thanks for the protip, Rich. 'Success' in Danish - my mothertongue - is spelled 'Succes' with just a single 's', so I am prone to making that mistake.
That said - I don't believe in the notion that you can't critizise anything or offer advice before being perfect yourself. Exactly the reason I think it's important to read Amys article, which I recommend as solid advice with bad examples.

Re: Advice from a successful infographic salesperson – let the fight begin

Rich Harris — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:47:14 -0000

Protip: When ridiculing the spelling in someone else's headline, check your own first. 'Succesful' indeed...

Re: Infographics could change your political views

Nicklas Pape — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:59:39 -0000

Hi Gert. Thank you, but I already saw that. I was trying to find out in which journal the article was published?

Re: Infographics could change your political views

Gert K Nielsen — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:58:32 -0000

Nicklas, there is a link in the 13th line of text. 'Opening the Political Mind' - set in blue. Or you can click here: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyha...

Re: Infographics could change your political views

Nicklas Pape — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:35:16 -0000

Where are the paper published?

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

sheijnk — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:17:52 -0000

Just came across your page. Thanks a lot for this excellent piece! Stefan Heijnk

Re: Care to explain how a Mega Shark can take a Boeing 747 down?

Cabbawabba — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:34:03 -0000

Its not 'too much research'. And its not a 'good story'. That said; why bother picking a piece of crap apart?

Re: Details about the Malofiej19 Golden Graphics in Print

matbaa — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:57:07 -0000

thank you

Re: Enough with the non-factual Breaking News Graphics

Alan Gray — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:06:20 -0000

There are too many infographics that ignore both reliable information and truth.
Those should only be allowed on the Colbert Report

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

jasonlankow — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 17:50:16 -0000

I hope you like this one as well http://namesake.com/blog/2011/...

Re: The Death of Datavisualization in the News

ninian — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:35:32 -0000

I couldn't agree more. How did this trend of data visualisation ever occur in the first place? What are its origins? I've never been a fan and felt like an outsider for a couple of years as papers jumped onto this wholly untried and untested trend. I wasn't allowed to not like them. It wasn't "cool" to do so. They might look nice but you need a hell of a lot of patience to be bothered to get the facts out of them. Most readers, I suspect, don't spend that amount of time sifting through the data. That's not their job. It't ours.

Re: The Death of Datavisualization in the News

Marian Steinbach — Mon, 16 May 2011 04:01:56 -0000

Gert, did you mean "News" (as in the headline) or "Journalism" as a whole (as the rest of the article implies)?

I'm asking because I don't see a lot of data visualization in the News. And that might be for good reasons. News are fast. Datavis (creation and reception) often takes time. We are glad when we find a good example for a bar chart depicting the month's unemployment rates.

If you talk about journalism as a whole and you're saying that data visualization won't be a part of journalism in the future, then I think you have a very narrow understanding of journalism. Philipp Roberts mentioned it: Some have already begun to augment journalism by publishing complete data sets, with or without visualization. Making pictures out of it (be it still, animated or interactive) is only one way to make use of that data. In fact The Guardian leverages the growing willingness of the end users to engage in the storytelling and fact finding themselves. They - your customers - can reuse that data in purposes the journalists don't necessarily think of.

I think that journalism has to change, and so it does. Journalists have to be more open about their sources, because end users want to check them. Publishing raw data in a digestible way is not storytelling, but it is part of a more transparent journalism.

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

Gert K Nielsen — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:20:07 -0000

Another big loser is Counter Terrorism Chief, John Brennan, who as far as I can tell, deliberately lied to the face of the journalists in order to advance his propaganda of bin Laden to be a sorry excuse of a man hiding in luxury behind a woman.

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

Gert K Nielsen — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:16:24 -0000

Hi Ninian - you have a lot of good examples too. The Dutch frontpage is an editorial illustration, and as such they have free hands, although the decision to run it on Breaking News Day is rather stoned-out.

Everyone is allowed to put images and links in their comments.

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

Gert K Nielsen — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:15:13 -0000

Hi Anibal. Infographics like this, which aim to show a very specific location, is in my opinion about 3D and good rendering - also -. That's the beauty of it: Info and Graphics combined.

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

Ninian Carter — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:26:41 -0000

You missed out the Dagblad De Pers page one offering – probably the funniest treatment I saw. You can see it here by scrolling down my blog from last week,
http://graphicgibbon.blogspot....

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

anibal maiz caceres — Fri, 06 May 2011 17:47:13 -0000

Nice post for good research of other's works. Beyond that, i agree with Alberto, infographics isn't about more 3d or more good renders, is about information.

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

Alberto Cairo — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:44:56 -0000

This post makes me feel hopeless. We are back in the 80s when all that mattered to too many editors and graphics people were explosions and 3D arrows with tacky gradients. Among all these, only a handful can be considered true visual journalism. The others are just sensationalistic fiction

Re: Osama Bin Ladens Death in Infographics – Gallery

David Alameda Bernal — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:33:04 -0000

Great collection!
What about online infographics: I send you one ;)
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/...