FlowingData - Word clouds cause death… or something

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Word clouds cause death… or something Posted: 18 Oct 2011 12:50 AM PDT Jacob Harris, a New York Times senior software architect, rants about how people like to use word clouds to tell stories: Of course, the biggest problem with word clouds is that they are often applied to situations where textual analysis is not appropriate. One could argue that word clouds make sense when the point is to specifically analyze word usage (though I'd still suggest alternatives), but it's ludicrous to make sense of a complex topic like the Iraq War by looking only at the words used to describe the events. Don't confuse signifiers with what they signify. Harris says he dies a little inside every time he sees a word cloud presented as insight. Hopefully his computer doesn't catch a virus that permanently changes his wallpaper, screensaver, and every text document he's ever written into word clouds, or yes, he would die a little inside many times and effectively die a lot inside so much that it might show on the outside. Dramatics aside, I have to admit it is amusing when I get emails from people who think they have found the holy trinity of analysis, ease-of-use, and aesthetics that is Wordle. It was never intended as a serious analysis tool. Word clouds were originally made popular as a way to navigate tags for bookmarks, but other than that they're more of a toy and should be treated that way.

Geographic data doesn’t always have to be mapped Posted: 18 Oct 2011 12:19 AM PDT Matthew Ericson, deputy graphics director at The New York Times, talks maps and when you should try something else: Maps also a terrific way to let readers look up information about specific places. On election night, they answer questions like like "Which seats did the Republicans gain?" or "Who won all the seats in Oregon?" or "Who won my Congressional district?" You don't have to remember the number of the House district you live in — you can just look at the map, zero in on the area that you're interested in, and see if it's shaded red or blue. And obviously, when the story is completely based on the geography — "How far has the oil spill in the Gulf spread?" — there's nothing more effective than a map showing just that. But sometimes the reflexive impulse to map the data can make you forget that showing the data in another form might answer other — and sometimes more important — questions. The full post is worth a read, chock-full of examples.

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