Saturday, November 6, 2010

Week 11: Information Graphics: Who says data and graphs must be boring?

In this contemporary society, the media is seen to be highly advanced with the use of visuals to advertise the goods and services of respective corporate but primarily to educate the public. (Lester, 1995, p. 194) Part of the reason why in this day and age, things around us are presented visually is because most of us are said to be visual learners/thinkers (Felder. & Soloman). People who acquire such visual learning styles are thought to remember concepts and ideas well when presented in a visual or graphical format; may it be in written language, diagrams, pictures or films (identifying your learning styles).This is because graphics can communicate up to 60,000 times faster than text  (Burmark, 2004).

Information graphics, more commonly known as info graphics, provides short stories with multicolored graphic illustrations and because of this; it is gaining its popularity in magazines, newspapers, corporate annual reports, and text books. (p.194)

For today’s entry, I would like to examine the strengths and weaknesses of information graphics. I feel that informational graphics have made quite an impact in the telecommunication industry for conveying its data.

One good example to present graphic reporting is the weather section of television news. 


With computer graphics today, the announcer can just report about the weather as he stands before a huge weather map as the director lightly projects a copy of the background image onto the blue or green screen. The colored icons along with the animated movements are both helpful because it enables us to distinguish the variables clearly. Before technology was a phenomenon, the weather announcer had to use literally draw symbols on chalkboards and sometimes magnetized strips that indicated weather fronts were stuck on large boards and sometimes would fall off. (p.190)

For info graphics to be effective, it needs to consist of a clear title, keys that explained symbols, and icons to make difficult information easier for the readers.

The example below shows how an effective graph looks like:


Then again, there are ethical issues in graph making that we must consider as communication professionals.

According to the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli,

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” (p.207)

It is in fact true that statistical representations of numerical facts can easily distort the truth through accident, ignorance or intent. This shows that representations of empirical data can easily mislead unsuspecting public. (p.208)

Here is an example of a misleading info graphic. 


If you look at both of the graphs, the scales of the y-axis are not the same. The one on the left starts at a non-zero number which actually made the bars look smaller compared to the one on the right. And so, making the bars on the right appear bigger than it actually is.

Tufte emphasized that the presentation is never more important than the story. Therefore for info graphic to be effective, it is to always tell the truth. However, Nigel Holmes argued that in realistic world of commerce, a company must always cater to the consumers’ desires by entertaining its audience.

Overall, I believe that as a professional communication student, it will be great that we learn both aspects, the good and the bad, so that with this understanding of informational graphics, it will provide us the basis to perform well during presentations and show datas in a clear, precise and efficient manner.

Works Cited

Burmark, L. (2004). Visual Literacy. Retrieved september 2010, from Educational videos:
http://www.mat-tech.net/COTF%20CD/WhyVisualLiteracy.pdf

Felder., & Soloman. (n.d.). learning styles and strategies. Retrieved september 10, 2010, from
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

identifying your learning styles. (n.d.). Retrieved september 2010, from EducationAtlas: http://www.educationatlas.com/student-learning-styles.html

(1995). Visual Communication: Images with messages. In P. M. Lester, Informational Graphics. (pp. 187-211). California: Wadsworth Publishing.