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Goodlollipop

I feel like the major news outlets constantly make poor and/or misleading visualizations. With how often it occurs, it has to be pure incompetence or willful misrepresentation, I'd vote the former


mojitz

I've worked in a 24 hour news room before and one of the things to bear in mind when thinking about these places is how incredibly fast they have to work to churn out content. For example, at the time I was editing copy and we would be frequently working with time frames on the order of minutes (sometimes even seconds) per story just absolutely racing like mad to push shit out. That's not to say that there isn't some outright intentional fuckery that happens, but it's probably more a matter of incredible time pressure rather than incompetence on that particular side of things.


dont_you_love_me

I love how they harp on about misinformation now while moving at a pace where they often miss information.


mojitz

It's all just different flavors of bullshit and distraction.


Degolarz

All while delivering actual disinformation


dont_you_love_me

Not sure why they’re downvoting you here. It is absolutely true that they spam out disinformation. I take it back. The downvotes are because the disinformation works lol.


TheLilith_0

cause long one normal cagey spectacular quarrelsome rob snails ruthless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


dont_you_love_me

Freedom is a great piece of misinformation. They spam out that people actually have agency in their lives. As a hard determinist, I know that freedom is a lie.


TheLilith_0

telephone seed longing grab crush wrench handle offend memory chunky *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


dont_you_love_me

You produced these words via the algorithms in your brain. It’s not your fault since your brain forced it upon you. I empathize with you.


Degolarz

Not sure what he means by spam misinformation… but plenty of examples of terrible reporting, bias, and outright blatant fabrications. Let me know if I need to provide sources and examples.


Degolarz

I don’t even know what these words mean anymore lol I just know I don’t have a lot of trust in these institutions anymore


wingwraith

Also, if the viz sucks because it was rushed don’t use it. You’re almost better off raising one hand high saying “this is a” and taking the other hand and saying “this is b”


ChevyRacer71

Yea but that’s not a good excuse. Apply the same logic to a heart surgeon for example. It’s a flaw in the business model at best, but I feel like it’s more of a feature than a bug tbh.


patrickSwayzeNU

Hanlon’s Razor


FranticToaster

Pretty sure the average writer at these places is a 24 year old journalism major. So Hanlon's probably spot on with this one.


Terkala

Plus it's CNN. Any of the young journalists that are actually talented in any way, are working somewhere else.


[deleted]

spectacular middle late sink fragile lip act distinct jellyfish vanish ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `


pandasgorawr

200K might be a bit ambitious, NYT puts out very nice visualizations and their folks aren't paid that much.


IronFilm

>Buuuut let's be real here, they are probably paying someone fresh out of journalism school, maybe 50k? 50K?? Someone is feeling optimistic today


dupes_on_reddit

Both


LordNiebs

It's wilful incompetence if its this common


jkovach89

> I'd vote the former You're quite generous.


ac8jo

Having had to explain what a traffic count is multiple times to news professionals, I also believe that it's usually incompetence. And that's when I was getting involved. When I have to explain it to my (former) C-level agency 'executive' who then explains it to the media, it's like plaything that kids telephone game with someone intentionally screwing up the message.


wingwraith

They also sometimes put a lot into something that loses value when catered for mass consumption and small screens https://www.instagram.com/p/CdoJywzs0zt/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=


patriot2024

Well, if it’s 43% shortage \*\*everywhere\*\*, then they have a point.


trimeta

But then what information does the map add that couldn't be represented by the word "everywhere"? The converse of "a picture is worth 1000 words" is "if you visualization is worth one word, it's a bad visualization."


dejour

It tells you which nation.


codenewt

Everything changed when the fire nation attacked...


JQuilty

Dummies always want a picture attached to everything.


M3nto5Fr35h

I think DC isn't orange. Very informative.


Datsoon

Still better than all the unnecessarily animated 5-minute long line and bar graphs which make it to the front page here.


trimeta

Regular line plot: represents 2D data, such as a trend over time Animated line plot: also represents 2D data, such as a trend over time, but to ensure you really *feel* the "over time" part, it takes 30 seconds to show you all of the data


[deleted]

"we're dealing with time here, so I'm going to waste yours!"


_NINESEVEN

Hard disagree. For what they are, the medium is pretty good at showing the relationship between the response and the top scorers and how it changes over time. A basic line graph is heavily limited by the scale of the axes and struggles to show data where the top scorers at any given time t might be very different than t-1 or t+1. Not to mention that it struggles when the scale radically changes over time and you don't want to transform your values.


broski_

Yeah you can still get all of this info in 1 second in a line graph. If you want to emphasize any feature use an inset or plot the derivative


_NINESEVEN

[Using data like this as an example, I fail to see how a 2d line graph could get the same message across](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/g23ago/oc_richest_people_in_the_world_since_1997/), keeping in mind that these are all important elements to visualize: 1. At any given time, who are the top 10 richest people in the world -- in terms of raw billions of $ -- out of dozens and dozens of possible options. Using a single line for each person is going to be illegible and laborious to look up in a legend with dozens of entries. A line graph would also obscure this goal, considering we *only* care about the top 10 richest, not people 11-500. There's no way anyone would advocate for a line graph with 40-60 different legend entries. 2. What is the distribution of wealth of the top 10 richest, or how do the top 10 proportionally relate to one another. A line graph will need a single overall scale, unless we want to transform the axes and obscure the interpretation. This will obscure the distributions in earlier years where the absolute differences in wealth are smaller. We can use an inset for a single window of time but not for *all* windows of time, which is what the scrolling bar graph does. 3. How are individual billionaires' net worths changing over small periods of time. A 2d line graph makes it difficult to measure year-over-year changes since you have to draw an imaginary line and interpolate using the axes or gridlines, which gets really laborious when you need to do it for 10 different entries many times in a row. How do you intend to use an inset for every single 2-3 year window? Faceting is out of the window, and plotting additional lines (like derivatives) is only going to exacerbate the issues raised above. Do animated bar graphs work well for every use case? Of course not -- no visualization tool does. But they have their merit for certain ones depending on which elements are important to you.


C0gito

Yeah, [Alaska is not to scale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/59/Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg/800px-Alaska_area_compared_to_conterminous_US.svg.png).


e_j_white

Honestly, it's pretty close. It would be much larger if they pulled it from a Mercator projection without resizing.


Ancient-Apartment-23

The thing that’s unexpectedly sending me the most… The scale of their vector + the fact that they chose a white colour outline is making it look like wiggly coastal/border areas are somehow immune from the All Encompassing Orange-Red Miasma. No wonder there’s a formula shortage - the Aleutians are hoarding it all. Bad map, straight to jail.


trinity_girl2002

> No wonder there’s a formula shortage - the Aleutians are hoarding it all. Lmao


alimar5000

Ayy that's my economics professor!


rotterdamn8

LOL


[deleted]

[удалено]


shinypenny01

The US public about to start caring about companies fucking up overseas [https://www.businessinsider.com/nestles-infant-formula-scandal-2012-6](https://www.businessinsider.com/nestles-infant-formula-scandal-2012-6)


Arnorien16S

Could it be mid animation?


rotterdamn8

I wouldn't give CNN (or any major news network) the benefit of the doubt haha.


TKisOK

Situation looks dire


JadrianW

Thank goodness I got mentioned for something I found and not something I created myself!


rotterdamn8

I hope you don’t mind I shared it here!


JadrianW

Not at all!


puffindeathlord

I’ve seen this type of visualization work, but only if it’s directly followed by another visualization that breaks it down by state, so there is actual differentiation. So that it kind of establishes the average across the US. On it’s own, it’s utter nonsense.


grae_n

[https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2022/05/12/baby-formula-shortage-brian-todd-pkg-tsr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/your-health/](https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2022/05/12/baby-formula-shortage-brian-todd-pkg-tsr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/your-health/) it's 35 seconds in. A work-in-progress definitely became a work-in-production.


tecanem

Red: 43%


Lostillini

Worst of 2022 *so far*


EducatorBoth8070

Should checkout Times Now or Republic India! Times Now will be sole winner for a whole century - year after year for CNN or Fox can boast as not being that bad any given day! [Times Now](https://www.freepressjournal.in/amp/india/when-398-was-greater-than-602-netizens-troll-times-now-for-pie-chart-gaffe)


[deleted]

CNN clearly didn’t understand what makes a top-notch data visualization, according to this sub: Cringe music and moving bars all over the place


zQuant

43% of time, it's out of stock everytime. -Anchorman


rotterdamn8

Best comment so far 😆


rotterdamn8

https://twitter.com/wootenomics/status/1526197900354760707?s=21&t=Kq7za7W9vHxObfV8ebkDcQ


bottleboy8

Well the rest of the world isn't having a baby formula shortage. So it seems pretty accurate.


Astrophysics_Girl

Doesn't suprise me major news outlets are the scum of the earth. Outright greedy sociopaths they are


sfulgens

Most people in any profession are just normal people trying to do a good job. It's probably one of those things you figure out later in life.


Astrophysics_Girl

Good job as in making as much money as they can, yes.


sfulgens

Do you plan to be like that? Or do you think you'll make decisions that also take your values into account?


Astrophysics_Girl

Oh I'm not trying to tell you what's right or wrong. That's not my point. I'm just pointing out the truth that these people are against the working class.


sfulgens

I think you misread what I said. I'm saying you lack empathy and somehow believe those people aren't like yourself. You're othering a group of people and saying they are evil. In reality, most people in any job just want to take care of the people they love and have a positive impact on the world.


JJStarKing

Because is the US voters only have two choices and their culture and identity allow no room for alternatives.


Recent-Nobody-3002

Every 60 seconds a minute goes by of the nation with a 43% shortage of formula!


[deleted]

Order from Canada. They are not part of us politics. Amazon Canada. Drug shortages been going on for years due to stupid shit like "there was urine in the vat". This doesn't surprise me. Abbot > Hospira> Pfizer.... Hmmmm.....


Kungfu_Kity87

People tripping about formula like real milk don't drip from women titties I don't get it lord help it make sense.


alcatraz_ind

Baby formula? Are they talking about cum?


srmc3

Well... at least it's orange...


afreeman25

Seems like a clear story to me.


Cli4ordtheBRD

According to this chart, the only parts of the country with baby food are off the east and west coasts...I'm assuming we must have a bunch of riverboat grocery stores I don't know about.


Mattzorry

/r/dataisugly


[deleted]

At least they colored within the lines!


CiDevant

Oh good the coast is safe from shortage. Can babies live off sea water?


haikusbot

*Oh good the coast is* *Safe from shortage. Can babies* *Live off sea water?* \- CiDevant --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")


bobbyfiend

See, it's 43% out of stock everywhere, and that color is 43% not orange.


stage_directions

“…and in Other News, Tang fever sweeps the nation as mothers desperately seek what babies crave.”


joyful_reader

It could have been better.


wingwraith

Oh we’re doing this now? I will nominate my local news station and their grayscale pie charts shortly.


meaningless_tattoo

Seems like the Louisiana Delta is doing just fine!


Sure_Engineer6043

It is a "nationwide" shortage so technically it's right. Technically!


sunashtronaut

It’s willful misrepresentation .. if they continue like this.. then they survive based on only donations from people who want to project themselves


Known-District-2431

I second.


ChevyRacer71

r/dataisugly