Story Review

I know the Super Bowl is old news now, but I’ve been itching to blog about this incredible piece of interactive journalism by the New York Times’ Matthew Bloch and Shan Carter.

As the caption states, this “map shows the location and frequency of commonly used words in Super Bowl related [DD:Twitter] messages”. Sounds simple and even a bit boring, but is instead almost unbelievably cool and fascinating. I have yet to meet the person whose jaw does not drop when they first realise what the real effect of this interactive graphic is.

In essence, it’s just words from geo-tagged tweets placed on a map. But because the authors have also chosen to highlight the frequency of each word by making it bigger if it is more commonly mentioned, what we get is something that really feels like a cheering crowd watching sport’s biggest event for the season (according to Americans, that is). We can even feel how the tension rises as the game draws to an end and can almost imagine the fans shouting the names of Fitzgerald and Holmes during the dramatic finish.

Of course, the Super Bowl is not only a sporting but also a great marketing event and sure enough, we’ve got tweets from people talking about ads. It is amazing how passionate people can get about advertising. The universal support for Hulu, the free online video service, is especially noticeable.

VERDICT

Originality: 5 (out of 5)

We are not sure if Bloch and Carter knew what they were going to end up with when they first hatched the idea, but it just smacks of pure creative genius.

Presentation: 5 (out of 5)

Simple, slick and compelling. The idea to express word frequency by a larger font works out incredibly well.

Journalistic value: 5 (out of 5)

This is the best example we have come across so far of the media being just a facilitator in a discussion that goes on in the community. Barring the headline, the caption and the menus, all of the content is user-generated. The newspaper plays a role in the background, by making it all possible through its superior technological expertise and resources.

Overall: 5 (out of 5)

Outstanding.

—

Thanks to Eric Ulken (@eulken) who pointed me to this interactive map.

—

See here how ratings work.

—

We could use your help. Contact us if you’d like to suggest a story worth reviewing, become a reviewer or get involved in any other way.

Can a story about parking tickets be exciting? Hardly. Yet, what do you do when you are a newspaper, you know that “New York City agencies issued 9,955,441 parking tickets from July 2007 to June 2008” and you have the location for 87% of those? Not using that amount of data seems like such a waste!

Enter the New York Times’ Matthew Bloch and Amanda Cox and their interactive map of parking tickets in New York City.

Google maps mash-ups are starting to become ubiquitous, so something on that basis cannot really be seen as original in November 2008. But not many newspapers have thought about using the technology for making parking tickets into a story.

The presentation of this story is minimalist but caters to all your core needs. Basically, what you will want from an interactive map of parking tickets is to see where the most tickets are and what the situation where you live or work is. Helpful enough, hot spots are marked on the map in red (with the hottest ones across the five boroughs listed in the sidebar), and there is a search field where you can search for an address. After spending some time exploring, this reviewer also wanted to check which blocks had the fewest tickets, but could not. However, most users are unlikely to be after that level of detail.

On a slow news day, this is a great way to bring some community information to the community. (Mind you, we are not sure if November 26 was a slow news day.)

The thing you’ve got to love about this map is that it allows any user to create their own story by interacting with it. Those may not be the most thrilling stories where the broader audience is concerned, but to the individual user they matter. If you wonder why, just go to Google Maps and find your own house. You see?

VERDICT

Originality: 4 (out of 5)

It seems like one of those ideas anyone could have had. Only no one else had them.

Presentation: 4 (out of 5)

Simple and straightforward, caters to the audience’s most basic needs.

Journalistic value: 3 (out of 5)

Everyone can create their very personal story.

Overall: 3.8 (out of 5)

Impressive.

—

Thanks to Alison Gow’s Headlines and Deadlines blog for linking to the interactive graphic.

—

See here how ratings work.

—

We could use your help. Contact us if you’d like to suggest a story worth reviewing, become a reviewer or get involved in any other way.