Saturday, January 30, 2010

Journalism, Data, Visualization

This is time series data of crimes reported in Virginia Beach from 2007-2009. There are stories in this data. Perhaps some are significant. Perhaps many are not.


We don't know because we don't consider the data in this way.

What is that spike in 2007? If nothing else it is statistically unusual. But why?


What is the story behind the 247 crimes that were reported on this single day, June 1, 2007?


It doesn't look like there was a trending increase in reported crime.

Still, what accounts for the difference between the low of 78 crimes on April 20, 2007? Should we just chalk it up to summer tourism?

Is there nothing we can learn from this? Are there stories that might inform future generations?

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