Questions on Alex Lundry's Chart Wars: The Political Power of Data Visualization - 20 views
started by Lauren Petta on 10 Oct 11
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#1 Lauren Petta on 10 Oct 11Lundry makes the point in his presentation that data can be misleading (to say the least). He also pints out that in the world of public policy it is used all the time. Do you feel as though you are being mislead in the world of politics? Do you think we would be better off if politicians and activists did not attempt to provide us with "information". Should be be responsible for conducting our own research in order to come to conclusions? -
#2 Tavish Dunn on 12 Oct 11Sometimes it does feel like I am being mislead by charts and other presentations in politics, or at least politicians are trying to mislead me. Although I can easily see when a graph has a suspicious origin axis when presenting a model of change, using a different scale does influence my perception of events. Whenever charts are shown on television or a projection, it seems like those presenting it only show displays for a short time before many people realize what they are seeing is incomplete or skewed to benefit the group's position. I think we should be responsible for conducting our own research before coming to a conclusion. At the very least, we should be able to notice when certain presentations of data are likely to be misleading. -
#3 Jacqueline Ramsay on 12 Oct 11I would stand by the idea that as a whole, society is constantly mislead by the world of politics. In this case we are mislead by the visual representation of numbers, which sometimes tells a warped perception of the true story. As long as people don't put too much trust in the legitimacy of the chart war products, people can still gain some truthful knowledge pertaining to public policy. By approaching these visualizations with skepticism and an open mind, we can can all learn something; the video did point out how much more influential the visible is than the audible. While it would be awesome if everyone was able to conduct their own research and come to their own conclusions, the general public lacks the time, resources, interest, and skill. The media will continue to feed us warped chart war products and it is our job to do our best at deciphering the truth.. -
#4 Amanda Power on 12 Oct 11Charts and graphs and numbers are all used to prove a point and to debunk another. Most people don't use them to present unbiased fact, especially in politics. No one is going to point out the flaws in their own plan or thoughts, it's counter productive. It is their job to present us with facts, it is ours to research and figure out just how much is truth and how much is just skewed. -
#5 Felecia Russell on 12 Oct 11I dont feel i am being mislead because i like to think of myself as one of the informed citizens of this world. However, on isssues that do not interest me, it could be stretching the truth and simplifying the issue more than it should, and that could be misleading because I wont do further research. There is no way we would be better off if activists and politicians did not provide us with information because not all issues interest people. I guess people would have to find the information on their own, but that would not be effective since people wont even read the newspaper. we should be able to conduct our own research to make a decision on our own, but not to find the information. It is our job to figure out the truth and chose a side! -
#6 Joette Carini on 12 Oct 11Lundry makes great points in this video, most of which I generally agree with. I do believe that visual data today is more persuasive than just straight statistical data, and it is something that the public is more inclined to believe and resonate with. To answer your question, yes, I definitely feel like I am misled in the world of politics on a daily basis. It is hard to find something to believe or find some way to be informed, seeing as most of the informational resources utilized by students, and people in general, are biased in some way. I feel as though we would be slightly better off if people were not always trying to inform us, but at the same time, I know very well that most people are far too lazy to go out and research EVERYTHING on their own. So, in summation, I believe that politicians should ease up on providing us with their false understanding of "information," but I also believe that we can only be responsible for conducting our own research to a small extent because most people probably wouldn't. -
#7 Melissa Moreno on 12 Oct 11I believe that we are responsible to some extent for what we come to understand from all the political data and numbers. Numbers can very well be misleading but so can the article you just read and the political ignorance of America. It can be presented very nicely but that is what democratic speech is, it isn't always concerned with the truth. Do I believe we have to research EVERYTHING we read or need to know? Of course not, but I do believe there are clues in each source of information that we look at that will tell us how valid and reliable what we are looking at is. We do it with gossip magazines; People, Us, and Star. They are all very interesting to read and yes there is probably a shred of truth in the articles but we all know not to take it at face value, the same with political information and numbers. We need to look at everything so we can get a good read on the information and then make an educated and informed decision. -
#8 Eric Henderson on 12 Oct 11I think we are all being mislead in the world of politics, as that is the overall "vibe" I get from any interaction with politics i come across. Policy leaders or politicians, make their living on misleading people, whether it be good or bad, into believing their particular point of view on a subject. I believe that there is a right time to have politicians give us "information" and a right time for us to research it ourselves. that is very hard to define, therefore i will only say that politicians she be giving us less "information" than they are giving us right now.
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