Data Visualization Preface - Media Outlets on Twitter

Data visualizations and/or infographics are a pretty hot topic these days. Dataviz (to me) is about organizing data in a way that facilitates deeper and faster insight about the data source. It’s about elevating the standard bar/line/pie chart while maximizing user experience.

Unfortunately, the rise in popularity of data visualizations and infographics is not directly proportional to quality. A scan of the recently launched Visual.ly shows a wide range of visualizations. A few are enlightening, some are confusing, many lack substance, and others would be best called graphic art rather than infographics.

My opinion of the dataviz space aside, for this project I wanted to analyze how major news media outlets (CNN, New York Times, etc.) compare in their use of Twitter. And, if possible, use the gathered data to describe the type of news each disseminates. To convey my findings, I created my first set of data visualizations.

Notes

• For each of the chosen Twitter accounts, XML was logged every other day from the following source: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/username.xml?count=250
• Data cleanup was performed using a combination of Notepad++ and Microsoft Excel.
• I’ve sought to minimize “chartjunk” as directed by the authority of data visualizations Edward Tufte. The man is impressive.
• Excellent resource: Getting Started with Data Visualization - Stanford