Week 10: Who is using Facebook around the World?

The phenomenon is one difficult to comprehend, for its ever-increasing popularity is something never before seen in the world of social media. The trend of Facebook can be further understood through viewing data of it's use around the world.


It is for this reason that my visualization group have chosen to present data on this topic to the class. Facebook is a relevant topic in our course, as social medium is a highly popular form of media in contemporary society. We researched many statistics on the use of Facebook within several countries, and broke this down to two main sites which are recent and reliable sources. These were:

http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/?interval=last-week#chart-intervals

http://www.geohive.com/earth/population1.aspx

Our visualization (that is, making our 'invisible' data into something visible') consists of different sized and coloured circles which form a particular order. These circles represent several things. Firstly, each circle is given a different colour. This is to give each country its own identity, and allows one to follow the order easily with their eyes. Next, the circles range in size. This size represents the overall population of the country. For example, the United States circle is much larger than the others, as there are over 300 million residents living here. Finally, the order of the of the circles ranks the countries in order of which has the highest percentage of Facebook users in regards to their population size. For instance, Canada is positioned first, as 53.5% of their country uses Facebook; a percentage higher than any other country in the world.


Our visualization represents the top 20 countries of Facebook users around the world. This particular visualization is effective because of the fact that it contains several types of data within the one image, and therefore clearly and effectively answers the question of who uses Facebook around the world. A way of making this visualization more effective would be to perhaps include more than the top 20 countries, to give viewers a ranger set of data. 


References:


Unknown. (2011). Facebook statistics by country. Available: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/?interval=last-week#chart-intervals. Last accessed 13th May 2011.


Unknown. (2011). Current world population (ranked). Available: http://www.geohive.com/earth/population1.aspx. Last accessed 13th May 2011.
  

Week 9: The Visual, the Body and the Social Body

This form of visualization is used to explain and debate certain scientific findings. Scientists are frequently seen to be using modes of visualization in order to communicate their research and findings to the public, or to try and get a point across. This can be done through graphs, diagrams, physical sculptures or even just pictures. One of the readings which can be found here http://www.metro.co.uk/news/147937-struggling-polar-bears-put-on-endangered-list is an article about how the US government has recently put polar bears on the endangered species list, as a result of global warming, and how environmentalists are angry that no action is being taken to "tackle climate change".


The image and form of visualization in this article is the picture positioned below the title. This photo depicts a polar bear struggling to stay a hold an ice berg, which is has been melted severely and is now surrounded by water.

 It is explained in the caption that images of these polar bears are commonly being used on posters to represent climate change. This image relates to the process and event of climate change in the way that it shows the immediate effect that this issue is having on animals in the environment, and the suffering which is occurring as a result.

The effect of this being published is that it allows for people to view the issue with their own eyes rather than just hear/read about it, which enables them to form a personal connection with the issue. The visualization can also result in individuals feeling quite sorry for the endangered species. This particular visualization therefore functions to accompany the article and affect the public and will hopefully assist in more support towards overcoming this issue. Therefore, I find this to be quite an effective form of visualization. When first viewing it myself, I definitely held sympathy for these animals and wanted to read more about the scientific findings how I can possibly help.

References:

Unknown. (2011). Struggling polar bears put on endangered list.Available: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/147937-struggling-polar-bears-put-on-endangered-list. Last accessed 5/5/2011