Alfredo Covaleda,
Bogota, Colombia
Stephen Guerin,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
James A. Trostle,
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Measuring risk is one of the topics/disciplines that analytic journalists track. Those folks have multiple methodologies that we can apply, and this one takes a mapping approach. Recently, super-researcher Gary Price, of “ResourceShelf,” pointed us to this: “Filmmaking–Risks–Map Source: AON 2005 Risks in Global Filmmaking Map “Every filmmaker, from major studios to independent producers, experiences some element of risk while filming in foreign countries. That is why, each year, Aon/Albert G Ruben, the largest entertainment insurance broker in the world, comprehensively measures and maps the risks filmmakers face across the globe. The 2005 Risks in Global Filmmaking Map measures crime, corruption, kidnap and ransom, disease and medical care risks, and references terrorism and political risks.” Direct LINK to These ResourceShelf Posts http://digbig.com/4dqyn
One of the interesting challenges for journalists and public health professionals is figuring out how to compare, and visualize, health care statistics in a demographic and geographic environment. Yeah, that's one of the things that epidemologists are supposed to do every day. But it ain't easy. In the current issue of ArcUser, Chakib Battioui, of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, has written an interesting article on “Calculating Health Disparity Indexes.” “Socioeconomic indexes are strongly believed to be associated with the risk of disease. However, there is no consensus in the United States regarding which area-based measure should be used to assess socioeconomic inequalities in health…. “To study the relationship between the rate of cervical cancer and economic status, the project used the Socio Economic Risk Index (SERI). SERI classifies people in public databases based on residential neighborhood characteristics and permits the calculation of population-based rates stratified by location…. “There are technical and conceptual obstacles to the adoption of area-based measures for public health. Currently, there is no consensus in the United States regarding which area-based measures should be used and what level of geography should be used to measure or monitor socioeconomic inequalities in health.”
The article is worth checking out because of the methodology's potential for application to other types of data.
Better Access to Public Health Infomation The same issue of ArcUser also carries an article by our old friend Bill Davenhall, of ESRI. His topic is as broad as the sub-hed above, but the accompanying map is especially interesting. Its caption: “Facing a flu vaccine shortage for the 2004-2005 flu season, Nebraska public health officials rapidly determined both the current vaccine supply and the anticipated demand using GIS.”
We're told that there might well be another flu vaccine shortage this coming winter. Heads up journos are starting to think now about how to cover — and illustrate — THAT story.
Jump into the study of epidemiology with Prof. David Kleinbaum and Prof. Nancy Barker in the online course “Fundamentals of Epidemiology” at statistics.com June 10 – July 15. Using their electronic textbook “ActiveEpi”, this introductory course emphasizes the underlying concepts andmethods of epidemiology. Topics covered include: study designs (clinical trials, cohort studies, case-control studies, and cross-sectional studies), measures of disease frequency and effect. Dr. Kleinbaum, professor at Emory University, is internationally known for his textbooks in statistical and epidemiologic methods and also as an outstanding teacher. He is the author of “Epidemiologic Research-Principles and Quantitative Methods”, “Logistic Regression- A Self-Learning Text”, and “Survival Analysis- A Self Learning Text”. Prof. Barker is a consulting biostatistician and a co-author of the “ActivEpi Companion Text”, and has over 10 years of experience teaching short courses in epidemiology and biostatistics at Emory and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The course takes place online at statistics.com in a series of 5 weekly lessons and assignments. Course participants work directly with both instructors via a private discussion board. Participate in the course at your own convenience; there are no set times when you are required to be online. For registration and information: http://www.statistics.com/content/courses/epi1/index.html Peter Bruce courses@statistics.com P.S. Coming up June 3 at statistics.com: “Toxicological Risk Assessment” and “Using the Census's new 'American Community Survey' ” and, on June 10, “Categorical Data Analysis.”
Spatial data analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology contribute to the advancement of crime analysis and the better understanding of criminal behavior. Since 1997 the Mapping & Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) program, formerly the Crime Mapping Research Center (CMRC), has reached out to academics and practitioners alike in the criminology, criminal justice and law enforcement communities to bridge the gap between research and practice. The MAPS program awards grants, sponsors conferences and workshops, publishes reports, and provides guidance. It also disseminates information on training opportunities in spatial data analysis techniques and GIS technology. In all, the program focuses on research, evaluation, development, coordination, and dissemination.
Matt Ericson, the top-flight map/infographics journalist/designer at The New York Times, produced another fine piece of work Tuesday related to changes in the Roman Catholic world. But what we get in print is superior [click here to see IoP version] to the online version of the cartogram (i.e. proportional map), which illustrates how the church has grown in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The print page positions the RC world c. 1900 right next to the RC population c. 2005. Readers' eyes can quickly shift from one region to the other and see the differences. On the other hand, the online treatment of those graphics, while supplying data for three different eras — 1900, 1978, 2005 — bring up each era individually, making it difficult to compare one to the others. Snazzy presentation, but at a loss of comprehension. Go to NYT story “Third World Represeents a New Factor in Pope's Succession” and click on the right column link for “Interactive: After John Paul II.” Then, after the java window pops up, click on “Changes in Catholics.”
GISCafe.com, an online magazine for the GIS community, recently established a site for “University GIS.” This includes a number of great tools for analytic journalists, not the least of which are syllabi for self-learning or running a training program in a newsroom, along with links to GIS experts around the nation who might be available as backstops on a GIS project.
One of the folks on Crimemapping made a fine contribution today filled with “heads-up” tips when it comes to crime mapping.
This Gallery of Data Visualization displays some examples of the Best and Worst of Statistical Graphics, with the view that the contrast may be useful, inform current practice, and provide some pointers to both historical and current work. We go from what is arguably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, to the current record-holder for the worst. See http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/Gallery/
Today's prognostication: Fifty to 100 years from now, historians and demographers will look at the era from 1990 to 2005 as one characterized by intense global population mobility.
Any major city in Southeast Asia these days is loaded with people from throughout that broad region. Any major citiy in Europe is loaded with people from other nations, especially the former USSR, the Mideast and Africa. And the blending of geography, demography and economics makes for fascinating stories IF we have the tools to tease out the interesting and important facts and trends.
The Jan-March 2005 issue of ESRI's ArcUser magazine is especially rich for analytic journalists and the JAGIS [Journalism and GIS] crowd. The latter will be especially interested in:
“GIS Tracks Earnings Sent Home by Mexican Migrants.” The piece, by two geographers from SUNY-Cortland, illustrates the money flow to individual Mexican states. Unfortunately we don't have data and maps showing the U.S. states-of-origin of those dollars, but the methodology will be of interest to geographers and journalists everywhere.
GIS Management is essentially the same as managing a CAR or Analytic Journalism operation in a news organization. The same issue of ArcUser leads with three articles on how to establish successful GIS programs; just replace “GIS” with “AJ” and the concepts translate easily. So check out “Enterpriseing GIS Management” ; “Supporting Successful Enterprise GIS Solutions” ; “Building an Enterprise GIS in a Limited Fiscal Environment“; “Evaluating Enterprise GIS Requirements” and “Powering Up Your Enterprise GIS.”
Finally, the IAJ gang has been promoting performance measurement (and forensic accounting) as important tools for journalists for the past couple years. Another story in ArcUser, “Performance Measurement in Local Government,” illustrates how GIS is a valuable analytic and measurement tool, one which journalists could easily adopt.
Tom Koch is an early-adapter of the tools of analytic journalism and a friend of the IAJ. “In an important new book to be published by ESRI Press in spring 2005, author Koch explores the role that mapping has played in man's ongoing struggle to understand and treat illness. In Cartographies of Disease: Maps, Mapping, and Medicine, he argues that we are all fellow travelers in the war against disease as well as agents complicit in their engagement. The communities we build, the technologies that enable them, and the commerce that sustains them together assure an environment favorable to the advance of microscopic disease agents. In a real way, medical science plays catch-up with the health problems we create in our evolving society; its scientific advances are a response to the diseases we foster through economic, environmental, and social choices.“
