A FUNCTIONAL ARTvisualization, journalism, storytelling

Alberto CairoUniversity of Miami

www.thefunctionalart.comTwitter: @albertocairo

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States with a largerpercentage of obese peoplethan of people witha higher education

US average27.2% BA or higher27.0% Obese

Complexity & Context Data Journalism Symposium

When Berkeleyside spoke to newly anointed Nobel Prize winner Saul Perlmutter earlier today, he joked that the “only reason to win a Nobel Prize” was to receive the famous Nobel laureate (NL) parking permit, reserved for laureates on the Berkeley campus.

An infographic (or a ‘visualization’) is a visual representation of evidence, a tool for analysis, communication, and understanding

I am a bit old fashioned

I am a bit old fashioned. In fact, I was listening to Ryan Murphy and...

...Here’s what came to my mind when he mentioned ‘Python’

How I see MYSELFHow I seeDATA FOLKS

How I see MYSELF

www.nick.com

How I seeDATA FOLKS

MR. COMPLEXITY

How I see MYSELF

www.pritchettcartoons.comwww.nick.com

How I seeDATA FOLKS

MR. COMPLEXITY MR. CONTEXT

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US average27.2% BA or higher27.0% Obese

Mr. Context (the caveman) says:“In the past, I worried too much about context and too little about complexity. Today, YOU worry too much about complexity and too little about context.” Consider these issues:

1. What information to present2. How to present it3. How to make it engaging

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US average27.2% BA or higher27.0% Obese

1. What information to present2. How to present it3. How to make it engaging

Do we seriously think about the consequences of what we show in our visualizations?Is it acceptable to visually represent any kind of available dataset, just because it is publicly available?

Donors to Proposition 8

http://www.eightmaps.com/

The Journal News

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/01/the_journal_news_gun_map_the_first_amendment_and_state_law_gave_the_new.html

This conversation about ethics cannot be limited to academia or to journalism. Almost anybody can access and use these datasets today

Evgeny Morozov quoting Lawrence Lessing’s ‘Republic Lost’

513 representatives

Complexity without enough context

Congress’ website

Complexity without enough context

http://revistaepoca.globo.com/diagrama/noticia/2011/10/diagrama-298-anos-de-falacao.html

Complexity without enough context

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States with a largerpercentage of obese peoplethan of people witha higher education

US average27.2% BA or higher27.0% Obese

1. What information to present2. How to present it3. How to make it engaging

What’s your point?Preserving a traditional journalistic question

when doing visualizations

http://www.chrisharrison.net/

SO WHAT?

We don’t think about the visual encoding deeply enough

SOURCE: XKCD

SO WHAT?Fischer, Eric. 2012. Language Communities of Twitter.

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/253385/

SO WHAT?

The Guardian

SO WHAT?

http://fcir.org/2013/04/30/visualized-boating-accidents-in-florida-2011/

http://fcir.org/2013/04/30/florida-leads-nation-in-boating-deaths/

FLORIDA CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING:Florida Leads Nation in Boating Deaths

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/23/world/middleeast/Refugee-Influx-Threatens-Balance-in-Lebanon.html

What’s the context of your data?

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/23/world/middleeast/Refugee-Influx-Threatens-Balance-in-Lebanon.html

What’s the context of your data?

The Atlantic magazine

Compared to what?

The Atlantic magazine

Compared to what?

The Atlantic magazine

Compared to what?

Annotating and Storytelling

AVERAGE +9.4%

DIAGRAMNEWS IN PERSPECTIVE

How Brazil can take advantageof a future with fewer childrenper couple.

Brazil’sDemographicOpportunity

Alberto Cairo, Francine Lima,Marco Vergotti

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Change36.0%

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BRAZIL’S POPULATION IS BIGGER

2000 2010

—BUT THE FERTILITY RATE IS MUCH LOWER THAN EXPECTED AS A CONSEQUENCE, POPULATION WILL STOP GROWING—

2030 2040 2050

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—AND IT WILL BECOME OLDER

Forecast for 20502005

Men Women

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CHINA

África

Europe

BRAZIL

AustraliaAsiaLatin AmericaNorth America

Millions of people per age group

No dataavailable

Years

POPULATION CHANGE

PRELIMINARY DATA FROM THE 2010 CENSUScreate an interesting picture of the changesthat the Brazilian population has gone throughin the past ten years. Brazil’s populationgrew, on average, 10% between 2000 and2010, but the fertility rate is below 2.1 childrenper woman, the minimum to keep apopulation from shrinking. According toCésar Marques, a demographer from theUniversity of Campinas, the main challengeBrazil will face in the future is how to maintaina healthy Social Security system if thenumber of older and retired people willlikely be much larger than it is today.Read on to learn about all the variables at playin this story.

(Data updated on November 4, 2010)The map shows the change in population

in Brazilian municipalities. Between2000 and 2010, 1,630 cities and towns,

from a total of 5,506, lost population. RioGrande do Sul is the state with a the largest

number of municipalities that lost inhabitants,due to a significant drop in fertility rates

and domestic migration

Aboveaverage

The 2010 Census has revealed a 9.4%population increase between2000 and 2010. The differences betweenstates, as you can see on the charton the right, are noticeable. Most richstates, such as São Paulo and Rio, didn’tgrow as fast as the ones in the north east.

Sources: IBGE, UN, World Bank, César Marques (UNICAMP)

How Brazil can transform the population challenge into an opportunity

As the population ages, the proportion of people of working age increases.The country will therefore have more people producing wealth (if the labormarket can absorb them) and fewer children to consume investments. It is awindow of opportunity, because in some cases the number of people ofworking age to fall back when older people are leaving the market.

The population under 15 years of age is falling today. A smaller number ofstudent in public schools will facilitate the quality of teaching, if the amountinvested in education stays the same.

Educational policy focused on low-income youth favors the formation of moreskilled workforce and greater social mobility.

In the future, Brazil will reach the stage of Europe and Japan, which struggleto support their elders. This is why it’s so important to prepare a more balanced retirement system, which will include retirement at a later age.

Each linerepresentsa country

or continent

A study in 2004 estimated that in 2010, the fertility rate would be 2.4 childrenper woman, on average. But new data collected by the IBGE prove thatthe fertility rate is already 1.9, below the threshold called “replacement rate”.When the fertility rate drops below this number, the population of a countrywill eventually start to shrink and grow older.

Forecasts made in 2004 anticipated that Brazil’s populationwould stop growing in 2040. But the most recent data fromthe IBGE suggests that this could happen much earler, in 2030.

New populationpeak: momentwhen populationwill stop growing

Former populationpeak (calculatedin 2004)

YEMEN

WORLDAVERAGE

INDIA

Number of childrenper woman

Replacementlevel: average of2.1 children per woman

Comparing the currentpopulation pyramid with theone predicted for 2050

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1. What information to present2. How to present it3. How to make it engaging

ENEM test

http://revistaepoca.globo.com/diagrama/noticia/2011/09/confira-media-e-o-ranking-das-escolas-na-prova-do-enem-2010.html

Hans Rosling, www.gapminder.comhttp://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world-bbc/

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US average27.2% BA or higher27.0% Obese Mr. Caveman says:

“So remember, Jimmy Neutron”:

1. Consider the consequences of what you present2. Think deeply about what are the most effective ways to present it3. Don’t just put your data in front of me. Tell me why I should care. Make me feel interested.

Thank youAlberto Cairo

University of Miamiwww.thefunctionalart.com

Twitter: @albertocairo

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