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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘Infographics’ archive

Number of comments in parentheses

March 29: Goodbye, Nigeria

I’m now in my last day teaching here in Nigeria. I’ve enjoyed my time here very much. I’ve even managed to find areas in which the Transcorp Hilton may need a copy editor. There’s no sense in wasting a not-quite-perfectly etched brass plaque. You can still make out the message, right? I’ve written before about how much I’ve enjoyed the [...]

March 24: More about my week teaching here in Abuja, Nigeria (1)

First of all, I’m sorry I didn’t get anything posted Friday about the work we’re doing here in Nigeria. I edited down a few pictures Friday evening but when I tried to upload them to my blog, the ACES site went down. I figured I had somehow crashed the entire ACES operation. Instead, it turned out to be a technical [...]

March 14: Swarm Interactive of Chapel Hill, N.C., seeks a 3D artist/animator (2)

Swarm Interactive is a 3D animation and design firm in Chapel Hill, N.C., that’s staffed primarily with former newspaper personnel.   The company was founded in 1998 by Don Wittekind, and Scott Horner, formerly of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel. The company produces medical web sites, interactive medical graphics and developed ViewMedica, a web-based system designed to help doctors explain [...]

March 13: For your consideration…

Paul Hamilos — assistant foreign editor of the London Guardian — today tweets a little sarcasm towards a graphic in today’s Times of London. He includes the graphic in question. Sure enough, the little label pointing to the shooter’s beard is laughable. Most likely, the Times took the description of the gunman who shot down 16 Afghan civilians Sunday in Afghanistan [...]

March 12: A look at a few notable Bracket Monday pages

Today is one of the biggest days of the year for any sports section: The day we present to our readers this year’s NCAA basketball tournament brackets. Years ago, all the better papers out there began building their sections around themes. Over time, those themes have become a) more inventive, and b) better executed. Meaning it’s a great time to [...]

March 8: Student paper takes a charting do-over when SGA raises its own salary (2)

This week, the Associated Students of the University of Nevada Senate — the student government at the University of Nevada, Reno — considered a bill that would increase its own salaries. The story about the proposal in the Sagebrush — the student paper there –  included this chart showing annual ASUN compensation over the years. In fact, the pay increase [...]

March 8: The 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Ironclads (1)

You’ve probably heard of the infamous battle of the Civil War ironclads, the Monitor and either the Virginia or the Merrimack, depending on whether you attended high school south or north of the Mason-Dixon line. That battle — depicted here by lithographers Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives — happened 150 years ago Friday. When the Civil War began in 1861, [...]

March 7: A look at today’s front-page Super Tuesday graphics (2)

Lately, I’ve done a lot of writing about election charts. Especially regarding what you might and might not want to try to show, graphically, during the primaries. I’m finding a lot of papers out there building huge map displays when, quite frankly, the story at this point of the election cycle isn’t about states or electoral votes. The story is [...]

March 6: Is it the shoes? It’s gotta be the shoes.

Just in time for this conference tournament season: Why it is that even some short guys can dunk a basketball. Click for a much larger view. Ah, it’s gotta be the shoes. Right? Wrong. It has more to do with the ass. Full disclosure: I’m six-foot-one. All I can dunk is a doughnut. And I don’t even do much of [...]

March 6: Our next Poynter live chat: Election maps

Ah, those ubiquitous red-and-blue election maps. They’re everywhere. And I don’t quite understand why, because geography simply isn’t the story we need to be telling at this point in the election. NBC News, 1980 — The story right now is a “horse race,” plain and simple: A rush to acquire delegates. The first Republican candidate to lock down 1,144 deleages [...]

March 5: A superb Super Tuesday primer by the Washington Post

And it’s not a print piece, nor is it an interactive. It’s a video. Proving that news videos can be done well. Sometimes I wonder, given all the dreck I see out there. See if this Washington Post video doesn’t explain nearly all you need to know about tomorrow’s Super Tuesday races. You’re watching Chris Cillizza of the Post‘s the [...]

March 3: Wonderful student-drawn hoops graphics to brighten your (Carolina) blue Saturday

The students of J484 Information Graphics at the University of North Carolina are at it again this year. Professor Terence Oliver has his students draw up a batch of basketball graphics for the start of ACC Tournament season. The graphics are posted on the Reese News web site and some even make it into print in the student newspaper, the [...]

Feb. 29: How a visual journalist gets married in 2012 (1)

A little over two months ago, I brought you the story of Larry Buchanan, visual columnist for McSweeney’s, and the way he graphically proposed to his sweetie Erin Wright. Erin was represented by the glasses; Larry by the flip-flops. Very cute. So how does one follow up a proposal like this? By getting married on Leap Day, of course. Larry [...]

Feb. 29: A tongue-in-cheek A1 package in Casper, Wyoming (1)

Here’s the situation: In order to draw attention to its growing concern about how the Federal government operates these days, the Wyoming state legislature proposed a bill to study how it should respond in case the U.S. government should collapse politically or economically. At the top of the list of proposals: Buy an aircraft carrier. Despite the fact that a) [...]

Feb. 28: How the Plain Dealer covered Monday’s high school shootings (6)

As you’ve heard by now, there was yet another horrific school shooting Monday. A total of five were shot. One died Monday. Two more passed away today. — PLAIN DEALER Cleveland, Ohio Circulation: 243,299 The Plain Dealer responded today in a big, big way with an awesome front page led by an awesome photo by staffer Thomas Ondrey. After the [...]

Feb. 27: Seven notable Sunday front page displays

I was on the road this weekend, so I didn’t get much of a chance to spend as much time as I’d like looking though the gallery at the Newseum. There were a number of pages Sunday, however, to which I’d like to draw your attention… — SIOUX CITY JOURNAL Sioux City, Iowa Circulation: 33,837 The most interesting package of [...]

Feb. 24: More fun with charts from Fox News (1)

Looks like Fox News is at it again. Check out this chart that was broadcast last Monday. There are so many things wrong with it that I barely know where to start. First, the horizontal axis is off. From left to right, we’re supposed to see a passage of time. But the distance between “last year,” “Last week” and “current” [...]

Feb. 23: Why the Fort Collins Coloradoan needs a copy editor… or a grocery store produce manager (1)

Oh, you just have to feel sorry for new Coloradoan editor Josh Awtry. He moved to Fort Collins just a couple of months ago and he worked on much of Wednesday’s centerpiece himself, he writes on his Facebook page. It’s a fine centerpiece, too: A look at the nutritional content of a typical school lunch. Just one little problem with [...]

Feb. 22: These pie charts might not be doing the job for your readers (6)

Catching my eye during my daily romp through the Newseum today was this front page by the Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., circulation 112,084. Anytime I see a bunch of charts on page one, I typically slow down to take a look. All too often, unfortunately, it really is like rubbernecking at a fender-bender. Because all too often, the charts really [...]

Feb. 20: A look at John Glenn 50th anniversary pages (1)

A number of papers out there have run packages over the past few days commemorating the flight of John Glenn, the first American in orbit. That happened 50 years ago today. Glenn wasn’t the first man in orbit, of course. That honor goes to Yuri Gagarin of what was then the Soviet Union. He flew one circuit around the Earth [...]

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