Role of data in society:
Representation of information or data to present complex information quickly and clearly
Background:
The earliest examples are cave paintings. Information graphics have roots in diagrams and statistical graphs and charts. In the 20th Century, Edward Tufte helped establish data visualisation as a concept and newspapers increasingly used visuals to help information be more comprehensible. In the 21st Century, there is now increasing emphasis on design and value of it for a successful infographic. Software programs are available for the easier creation of infographics as the importance of visual appeal is acknowledged and companies use this in their marketing strategies.
Impacts:
Inform, persuade, display patterns in, or translate heavy/difficult/complex/boring information to specific target markets or general society.
What data does it publish?
Any and all data- mostly used for the purposes of relaying data that may be difficult to process in full text form or to make data usually overlooked to be more accessible to today's visual society.
Where does this data come from?
Surveys, statistical data gathering centres, research on the internet, books, and any other publishing mediums relevant to the topic of the infographic.
How is this placed in 'infrastructural globalism'?
Infographics are limited in their global applicability. Global data is difficult to collate and certain demographics may be misrepresented or under-represented if infographics don't ask the right questions due to the influence of multiple factors such as race, culture, values, age, beliefs, etc. In order for infographics to fulfil their purpose of informing audiences about important topics, persuading audiences of certain viewpoints, and to remain relevant to their audiences, they may need to be local and not global in their information. However, infographics have a place in infrastructural globalism as insights into what different countries and societies value through what they choose to portray.
How do you get from local to global and back when it comes to data, forms of content and expression, archives involved, and distribution?
Global data can be very difficult to gather as well as represent and therefore local data is better suited to studies of people, for example coffee drinking which may be culture specific, financial spending which may be country or neighbourhood specific. In order to make data uniform and applicable it also needs to be translated from different localities in order to be collated into one set of information, and then the entire set translated in order to be relayed back to the different localities. Translating does not merely refer to language, all other country specific factors must also be translated in order to make information uniform. One example is currency which must also be adjusted for inflation as well as its value in that country ie, how much it can buy.
Archives involved may be any published material depending on the research topic.
Distribution of such global data would need to be in studies of international affairs, and/or on the internet as a novelty of comparing between different localities.
What kinds of data friction is involved?
Infographics can gather data from any and all sources depending on their topic as outlined in "Where does this data come from?" and then organised into databases or some sort of system to be further processed to produce the final infogrpahic. However in order for research to be extensive this is very difficult. While processing infographics it is important to remember to take into account biases in survey samples, statistical data sources used, or research sources.
How open is all this to manipulation or variation?
Very. Infographics are visual and have limited explanation therefore are open to interpretation by the audience. The audience may also only retain certain facts from the infographic which therefore alters their perception of what was visualised. Infographic sources themselves are also often not extensive, the creator of the infographic may only select parts of information in order to persuade audiences, and all information is subject to become less applicable over time as more information arises or situations change.
