Blog Post #7--Exploring a Data Visualization

I examined many of the data visualizations offered on the PLS site, but I found myself continually drawn back to the NYPD Stop & Frisk visualization.  This visualization was created by John Keefe from WNYC and appeared both on the WNYC site (http://www.wnyc.org/story/222809-wnyc-map-police-find-guns-where-they-stop-and-frisk-less/) and on The Guardian website (http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2012/jul/16/new-york-police-frisk-search-gun-map-wnyc).  Published in 2012, WNYC used data from the New York City Police Department to map all stops & frisks and all gun recoveries.  Interestingly, the data showed that most guns were found not in the targeted stop and frisk neighborhoods, but well outside them. 

The NYPD has been criticized for racial profiling in its Stop & Frisk program, something the department denied, but that data seem to support.  Then Mayor Bloomberg asserted that the program would get guns off the streets and that by focusing on certain neighborhoods believed to be "hot spots," the city would be safer.  Instead, police distrust increased and the program data show that the profiling inherent in focusing on targeted "hot spots" is not only unfounded but unethical. 

I have students who have routinely been victims of Stop & Frisk.  One LaGuardia student spoke about his experience during the 2013 LaGuardia Speech Contest and received first place honors for his efforts.  My own partner has been stopped and frisked while walking home from my apartment in Washington Heights for no reason other than that he has dark skin, even when he is dressed in slacks and button-down shirt with dress shoes. 

Why did I choose to focus on this visualization?  Because so many of my students have experienced being stopped and frisked, the program and its data are personally relevant for them.  More important, though, students can see the actual results of the program.  But perhaps the reason I chose this visualization as being particularly relevant for a class activity--especially in my Computer-Mediated Communication course--is its ability to present an enormous amount of data in an easy-to-understand, interactive visual tool.  We talk in my class about how technology enables us to better understand ourselves and our place in the world.  This tool gives students an opportunity to examine their own neighborhoods, to determine whether the NYPD sees their neighborhoods as "hot spots," and to critically evaluate the efficacy of the program in light of its mission to make the streets safer.  Moreover, because the map is color-coded, the information is easily identifiable, allowing students an opportunity to think critically without the need to sift through what could otherwise be overwhelming information.  Students can thus draw conclusions and expand them to develop arguments about the issue itself and/or about the utility of visualization tools such as this for presenting information.

This first image is a screen shot of a close-up view of my own area of Washington Heights, 171st & Broadway.  I live three blocks from Columbia University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital.  The area in bright pink is a "hot spot"--the area surrounding Columbia University Medical Center, the boundaries for which are Broadway on the east and Fort Washington Ave on the west, and 165th Street on the south and 168th Street on the north.  You will see, however, that there were no guns seized in this area.  Instead, a gun was seized further up Broadway on 172nd Street (one block from my apartment), indicated by the bright dot in the upper center of the image.  This stretch of Broadway is not considered a hot spot, though it is a pale shade of purple, which means it is more heavily patrolled than are the areas that are royal blue.
 

The second image is a wide-view screen shot of the area, which clearly illustrates that guns were not recovered in the most heavily targeted areas (those shaded in medium and bright pink), but rather in areas that are only minimally patrolled for the program.

Interestingly, the wide view demonstrates that the areas targeted as "hot spots" seem to have been unfairly labeled as such.  This entire area is quite diverse, though a large portion of the population is Dominican and Cuban.  The medium pink areas are more heavily Dominican, and yet those areas did not produce more guns. 

Does this support claims of racial profiling?  Maybe yes and maybe no, but it at the very least suggests that the program is flawed.  Perhaps it is most useful for opening a dialogue about the program, about racial profiling, and about the utility of visualization tools such as this for understanding ourselves, how we are perceived by others, and how we might go about changing those perceptions.

Blog Post #6--Annotating Google Earth

I tried and I tried, but I could not figure out how to do this.  We talked about it at our last meeting, but despite the tutorials sent to me by Richard and despite my repeated attempts, I just can't figure it out.  Perhaps it's because I'm a Mac person?  Doubt it.  Still, what I wanted to do was annotate Google Earth and show you all where I grew up.  Instead, I'm posting a pic that I grabbed as a screen shot from Google Earth.  It's the house I grew up in, located in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. 

The red square is the window to my bedroom.  The blue square is the Catholic Church.  When my mother finally sold the house and moved away from Steamboat because of her health (long story; she can not breathe at altitude), the Catholic Church bought the house and it is now the priest's residence or something like that.  Interestingly, when we lived there we had a fenced backyard.  The fence is gone and there is now an uninhibited view of the church.  

The left part of the house was originally built in 1904.  It had many lives, including serving as an infirmary at some point.  The original middle part was added on in the 1950s but the foundation hadn't been properly built and it was literally tilting when we bought the house (I was in 6th grade and the house was condemned; my mom bought it for $27,500 and because my stepfather was a general contractor, we did all the work on it ourselves).  The right part of the house was added when I was in high school and housed what became the new master suite and office upstairs, and garage and carpentry work space downstairs.  What you can't see in the picture is the ski mountain, which you would be able to see if the left part of the house weren't so tall.  Yes, I grew up skiing.  But only in the west.  Snow in the east is like cement. 

This has nothing whatsoever to do with our upcoming blog post, but it strikes me as an interesting use of visualization tools and seems related to Glenn Hershaw's interest in social media.  Today Tech posted a map that visualizes how Twitter chatter about #FortHood spread across the U.S. in the hours following the April 2, 2014 shooting.  I'm not sure if we would have access to whatever visualization tool was used for this, but it seems to me an interesting method of visualizing the importance of social media when important events occur.

http://www.today.com/tech/watch-forthood-chatter-news-shooting-spreads-across-us-2D79476682

Blog Post #5

Apologies to all for my absence.  I was unable to attend our last meeting due to an injury and the week following was crazy busy.  I presented research at the CUNY CLASP Colloquium and feel honored to have been named by the keynote speaker, distinguished scholar from UNC Chapel Hill Dr. Julia Wood as one of the premiere scholars in the discipline currently exploring images of women and minorities in American Media.  She mentioned me twice during her keynote, including praise for my presentation earlier that day (she attended my panel, she said, because she saw my name listed).  I was beaming.  All that said, however, I was so busy with preparing my presentation and preparing for the colloquium that I neglected my PLS responsibilities.  I'm back, though, and ready to move forward.

As a brief aside, before I launch into the current blog assignment, I presented the Digital Project about which I posted in my previous blog post to my HUC117--Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication course yesterday.  I discussed the incorporation of word clouds and, luckily, had found some scholarly articles that discussed how word clouds were used to study the tweets/status updates of 9000 people and in so doing, accurately predicted the gender of the poster 89% of the time, and predicted psychological characteristics 92% of the time.  Using that as a foundation, I explained the benefit of incorporating word clouds into students' analysis of the issue they will address in their research project, showed the exemplar I had created last semester and then showed the word cloud I created (which I included in my last blog post) and discussed how using it would have improved my overall argument.  I then opened the discussion to the class and, surprisingly (and happily), the students were very excited about the possibilities.  Seems like my little project might work out after all. :)

As I explored various GIS/mapping sites, I stumbled upon a couple that I found particularly interesting.  In particular, I decided to focus on the New York City Graffiti and Street Art Project created by Lewis & Clark College's Watzek Library and Off-Campus and Study Abroad Program.  The site's "About" page indicates, the idea for the site "was an experiment to develop and employ mobile technologies for teaching and learning with the expectation that it might serve as a model for creating collaborative digital image projects with mobile devices and Flickr for non-traditional classroom settings."  The site includes a google map with points on which the visitor can click, with links to the various neighborhoods that, when clicked, open a gallery of photos of graffiti and street art.  I was sad that the Hunter's Point link didn't have more photos of 5Pointz.  I meant to take photos of it myself before it was whitewashed but never made the time.  Clearly I lost my opportunity, though I'm happy to report that on my travels past the building each morning on the 7 train I notice new graffiti and new tags popping up over the whitewash.  Rebellion!  I did create a montage memorial of 5Pointz on my Facebook page the day it was whitewashed, images obtained from Google images.  I was equally sad to realize that there are no links for my neighborhood:  Washington Heights.  This neighborhood is filled with graffiti, some of it very poignant.  The RiteAid across the street has a beautiful graffiti mural painted on the side of the building that celebrates neighborhood and unity.  Down the street is a graffiti piece that encourages residents to "Know Your Rights!"  Unfortunately, the site only extends as far north as Harlem (125th between Lenox and Park Ave).  Hmmm... maybe I should take some photos and create my own site.  I snapped a screenshot from Google Maps "street view" of the RiteAid just for fun.

I chose this particular site because I teach the importance of the visual and the importance of actually paying attention to the images, signs, and symbols to which we are exposed on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute basis, and to then examine the messages sent by those images, signs, and symbols.  Many of us walk around in a fog, not really paying any conscious attention to what we see, yet we are nevertheless influenced by it all on a subconscious level.  The images, the messages, speak to us and influence how we see ourselves and our place/role in the world, not to mention how we see others.  Graffiti is, by its very nature, a form of rebellion, often perceived as deviant, but often very political in nature.  Many graffiti artists try to make a point with their art, to call attention to something they deem important or relevant to the neighborhood and its population.  Thus, by encouraging students to examine a site like this, and then to potentially visit some of the neighborhoods and look at the art in real life, students might begin to appreciate the importance of paying attention.