{"id":101,"date":"2013-02-22T08:39:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T16:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/?p=101"},"modified":"2013-02-22T08:49:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T16:49:20","slug":"deceiving-data-displays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/2013\/02\/22\/deceiving-data-displays\/","title":{"rendered":"Deceiving Data Displays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"26233\"<\/a>Luckily, data can be displayed in various different ways. For some people, reading text and trying to decipher the message being conveyed is nearly impossible. These individuals are only able to interpret data by looking at a chart, diagram, or some sort of visual representation is better for their understanding; it is the only way that they\u00a0can\u00a0<\/em>understand.<\/p>\n

In the book\u00a0Designing Visual Language: Strategies for the Professional Communicators<\/a>, \u00a0<\/i>by\u00a0Charles Kostelnick<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0David Roberts<\/a>, the paramount usage of various ways of visual data display are analyzed and discussed further. Specifically, in chapter seven, interpretation and its relation to data displays are explored, and it is concluded that the way in which data is displayed can influence one’s interpretation and perception of that data.<\/p>\n

Although variations of data displays are commendable so that more people are able to understand information, the multiple ways provided to representing data also allow the representer to illustrate, or even\u00a0skew\u00a0<\/em>the data, so that it is conveyed in a certain light. For example, on page 247 an example is provided that displays membership trends of a\"10.5923.j.economics.20120201.03_001.gif\"<\/a> large nonprofit organization. The way in which the information is presented, a table, is rather difficult to read and merely looks like a times table chart. After “scanning the table, [even] Ed (the creator) quickly realizes that in this form his readers can’t see the trends in membership very easily or dramatically.”<\/p>\n

Even though Ed realizes this and decides to recreate his data display method as shown in his next two drafts of a pie chart and bar graph, it still presents the idea that creators of data displays have the power to present their information in a murky way in order to hide certain trends, or emphasize what they would like highlighted.<\/p>\n

Michael Lenyo is an author who has explored the effects of data representation, and in 2004 he published a book, Crooked Numbers: Using Opinions to Shape Statistics,<\/span>\u00a0<\/a>that explores the subject in more detail. Although his book is primarily about flawed statistical data, he does a great amount of discussion on how the creators of data displays, text or visual graphics, hold power in swaying the audience.<\/p>\n

In some cases, creators may feel compelled to represent data. If they are forced to represent their data some how, but feel that the information they have to show is incompetent or not worth they may feel that displaying it in a murky way is the only method that will not sabotage their purpose.<\/p>\n

“There\u00a0 are\u00a0 many\u00a0 reasons\u00a0 why\u00a0 people\u00a0 choose\u00a0 to\u00a0 manipulate\u00a0 statistics.\u00a0\u00a0 They\u00a0 may\u00a0 feel\u00a0 pressure\u00a0 from\u00a0 outside\u00a0 sources,\u00a0 they\u00a0 may\u00a0 be\u00a0 constrained\u00a0 by\u00a0 budget,\u00a0 or\u00a0 they\u00a0may\u00a0 have\u00a0 personal\u00a0 objectives\u00a0 or\u00a0 values\u00a0 they\u00a0wish\u00a0to\u00a0support” (Lenyo).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an alarming thought because, in some sense, it makes us question every set of data we have ever read and utilized. This fortifies that fact that each individual who ever views data that is not presented by their own creation, could possibly be viewing skewed data, and even biased data. It is the responsible of the interpreter to read the information at hand with knowledge of adulteration and corruption.<\/p>\n

Overall, visual data has advanced many aspects of our informational world, and has allowed statistics and information to become more effective for some people. “…Bars, lines, slices of pies, dots, and icons. Although they may rely on text (labels, legends, titles) to define them, graphic elements do the heavy lifting because they alone represent the data\u201d (262). As already stated, these visual elements are great in the sense that they allow some people to understand things that were never comprehensible before; however, I feel it is important to remember the fact that statistics are, indeed, often formed and presented based on opinion, thus not always one hundred percent factual.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luckily, data can be displayed in various different ways. For some people, reading text and trying to decipher the message being conveyed is nearly impossible. These individuals are only able to interpret data by looking at a chart, diagram, or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"saravierra","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/author\/saravierra\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Luckily, data can be displayed in various different ways. For some people, reading text and trying to decipher the message being conveyed is nearly impossible. These individuals are only able to interpret data by looking at a chart, diagram, or … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/397"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/saravierra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}