Class #15: Data Graphics in the Press

Background Reading

• Utts, Chapter 9: "Plots, Graphs and Pictures"

Examples

• The Good: Is More Medicare Spending Better? From the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care.
  Related news link: " Healthcare myth: More equals better." Money Magazine, October 13, 2003.

• The Bad: Examples from the USA Today Snapshot Index.

  Bar Charts

  • Banned Electronics Proportionality.
  • Job Boom Design variation.
  • Holiday Gift Spending Ambiguous labels.
  • Prayer in School Where is the axis?
  • Blood Alcohol Limit Where are the data?
  • Most Dangerous Occupations Too many dimensions.
  • Why Americans Want Mars Missions
    (Source: Poll by Harris Interactive for SPACE.com)

  Histogram

  • Paperless Office Bin width

  Time Series

  • Consumer Debt Axis scales?
  • Gas Prices
    (What is a dollar worth? CPI Calculator)

  Two-way Table

  • Pay Raises Missing the story.

• The Ugly: The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation. This is a spoof, of course. The point is that Excel and Powerpoint make it easy to produce snazzy graphics, but there is no guarantee that these will be informative.