Data Vis Dispatch, October 22

The best of last week’s big and small data visualizations

Welcome back to the 165th edition of the Data Vis Dispatch! Every week, we publish a collection of the best small and large data visualizations we find, especially from news organizations — to celebrate data journalism, data visualization, simple charts, elaborate maps, and their creators.

Recurring topics this week include mazes, organ donation, and Crokinole.

What goes through the mind of an information designer when they create a visualization? This week, Voilà caught our attention with an interesting challenge:

Voilà / Francis Gagnon: “What happens when two information designers who work at the same agency challenge themselves to rethink a set of charts they found on the Internet? […],” October 16 (Bluesky)
Voilà / Francis Gagnon: “Their attention was focused on different things. Patricia’s notes show a focus on content, with questions such as ‘Is 2% a lot?’ […],” October 16 (Bluesky)

With each passing day, wars and conflicts seem only to spread. In the Middle East, Israeli airstrikes continue and the destruction in Gaza is immense. Ukraine battles pro-Russian narratives on Telegram; fighting in Sudan intensifies; European NATO members are unprepared to defend themselves:

Bloomberg: Lebanon Says Expanded Israel Airstrikes Kill Mayor in South, October 16
Kontinentalist: “Hear from the voices of cultural practitioners from Gaza as they tell you more of these anecdotes in our new story,” October 21 (Tweet, Article)
Texty: Карусель емоцій: Рівень маніпулятивності українських телеграм-каналів [Carousel of emotions:The level of manipulativeness of Ukrainian Telegram channels], October 21 More to discover here
The Economist: The war in Sudan, in maps and charts, October 16
Bloomberg: Why Europe Is Unprepared to Defend Itself, October 16 More exceptional visualizations

In politics, we take a look at public opinion in the U.K., where pensioners are not optimistic about the new government, and recent elections in Brazil, where women are still not winning an equal share of votes:

The Times: How well off are British pensioners by international standards?, October 20
Gênero e Número: Sete eleições e poucos avanços [Chart description: The bars show the proportion of female candidates elected to Municipal Chambers per year], October 16

With elections just around the corner, this visualization breaks down the structure of the Japanese House of Representatives. And did you know that almost half of all elected representatives in Germany have a paid part-time job?

Nikkei: 衆院選の仕組み [Chart title: The primary election has 289 seats], October 16
Der Spiegel: Was verdient Ihr Bundestagsabgeordneter? [How much does your member of parliament earn?], October 19

All elections this year are eclipsed by one — the race for the U.S. presidency:

South China Morning Post: Tracking the polls in the 2024 US race, October 16
The Washington Post: A guide to the 7 battleground states that could swing the election, October 21

Two arrow plots focused on the history of polling errors in past elections:

The New York Times: How Accurate, or Off-Target, Could the Polls Be This Year?, October 17
The Wall Street Journal: The Pollsters Blew It in 2020. Will They Be Wrong Again in 2024?, October 21

Thousands of factors could decide the tight race between Harris and Trump. Among them: Latino voters, CEOs and gerrymandering:

Le Monde: Elections américaines : le vote latino plus décisif que jamais [U.S. elections: Latino vote more decisive than ever], October 20
Financial Times: Yes, CEOs are moving left, but ‘woke capitalism’ is not the whole story, October 18
Le Monde: Présidentielle américaine : comment le « gerrymandering », un découpage électoral partisan, modifie le résultat d’une élection [Chart title: Partisan electoral redistricting, gerrymander-style], October 22

One very important factor in politics is money. Who’s collecting donations? Who’s backing candidates with cryptocurrency? And where are candidates spending what they raise?

The New York Times: Harris Sets Record for Biggest Fund-Raising Quarter Ever, October 21
The Washington Post: Crypto cash is flooding the 2024 election. Here’s who’s benefiting, October 18
Bloomberg: Harris Blankets Airwaves, Trump Bets on Pennsylvania in Final Stretch, October 18

Two tilemap-style small multiples shed light on lawsuits crucial for the U.S. elections and show how residents have cast their votes since 2016:

Bloomberg: More Than 165 Lawsuits Are Already Shaping the 2024 US Presidential Election, October 15
The Washington Post: How people cast their vote in each state, and how it’s changing, October 16

That’s a wrap on the U.S. elections, but we’re not done with enhanced tilemaps yet:

Interactive Journalism: “New on The Pudding : ‘The United States of Abortion Mazes’,” October 22 (Bluesky Post, Article)
FlowingData: Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Adoption in the States, October 16

Next up, maps of the physical geography of North America, how it evolved over time, where the construction of border walls has put land in limbo, and where it’s actually feasible to live:

Robert Simmon: “‘Washington State Through Terrain and Time’ Daniel Coe,” October 18 (Bluesky Post, Map)
The Washington Post: Expanding the border wall in South Texas would leave more U.S. land in limbo, October 18
The Washington Post: The new American Dream should be a townhouse, October 21

In environmental visualizations this week, the German Foreign Office released its Climate Conflict Vulnerability Index, and the U.K. government launched an insurance program to boost flood defenses:

HasPop.eu: “In an effort to measure and highlight risks globally, the German Federal Foreign Office released the Climate-Conflict-Vulnerability Index,” October 17 (Tweet, Climate—Conflict—Vulnerability Index)
Bloomberg: The UK Is Losing the Race Against Devastating Floods, October 16

Organ donation in Germany and assisted suicide around the world — these medical topics converted into visualizations:

Der Spiegel: Was Deutschland von anderen Ländern lernen kann [Chart description: “Would you donate your organs to another person after your death?”], October 21
SBS News: 스위스의 안락사 캡슐, 구독자는 어떻게 생각해? [What do subscribers think about the assisted suicide capsule in Switzerland?], October 17

Last but not least, the (actually really long) stone age, the difference between singing and speaking, a game called Crokinole, and Nobel Prize winners:

Jens Notroff: “As useful as Thomsen’s Three-Age system is, it also may have added to a disproportionate perception of how loooooong that period we usually sum up as #StoneAge really was,” October 21 (Tweet)
Scientific American: Hidden Patterns in Folk Songs Reveal How Music Evolved, October 15
The Pudding: “Do you know about the game of Crokinole? No!? Well then, come learn how amazing the world’s best competitive players are. Plus, we made a playable simulator!” October 17 (Tweet, Article)
Der Spiegel: Nobelpreisträger: Die Genialsten Köpfe der Welt [Nobel Prize Winners: The Most Brilliant Minds in the World], October 15

What else we found interesting

Dr. Annie CAIP FCRIC: Color Buddy, a tool for building color palettes for visualization, October 18 (Tweet, Color Buddy)

Applications are open for…


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