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.

Blog Post #4

For the Seminar Project using the Digital Humanities, I will revise the existing research project, which is the major project, for my HUC117--Introduction to Computer Mediated Communication course.  As it currently exists, the assignment is as follows:

Digital Course Project

In this assignment, you will construct a reader-friendly, content-focused web site that develops and defends an original argument about CMC theory and/or practice discussed in class or in your readings.  In terms of writing, this assignment should be equivalent to a 5-page paper.  This project shall be composed of:

1. an introduction page that states your thesis,
2. a background page that explains key terms and provides a history of your issue
3. an argument page that persuades your reader to accept your thesis, and
4. an implications page that answers questions like, "what does this mean for contemporary public life?" or "what's the next policy step?" or "how will this affect interpersonal communication in the future?"

I strongly suggest you organize your implications around themes such as technology, identity, and/or culture.  You must also provide a references page that provides links, where possible, to your source material (sites are more reliable when they provide references to which readers can link for additional information).  You should also include hyperlinks throughout your web site to engage the reader.
________________________
I instruct students to publish their project either on ePortfolio (which is cumbersome and presents many problems for accomplishing this project) or on Wix (which is user-friendly and a student favorite).  I currently have exemplars from the fall semester linked on my own ePortfolio page under "courses."

I plan to incorporate the Digital Humanities by asking students to create word clouds using either Wordle or Voyant, for which the corpus will be the sites and/or articles that provide the foundational (historical, key terms, issues, etc.) information for their argument.  Students will then incorporate a page between the "Background" and "Argument" pages that provides a discussion of the key terms that this DH tool illuminated (these may be the same or different from the established key terms, or it may be ideas or issues that were previously unexamined).  This should help students focus their argument and the "Argument" page should, as a result, be stronger.

I plan to use this project as the basis for a pedagogical article I plan to submit to Communication Teacher, one of the journals of the National Communication Association and in which I have previously published.  This journal serves as a pedagogical resource for others in the field and as yet has provided no activities or discussions focused on DH.  Also, because it is pedagogically-focused, it will not only enhance my scholarly productivity, but it will embrace my own passion, which is teaching (I love my research, but my passion is teaching), thereby neatly combining the two into one grand project.

For fun, I visited the exemplar I created for the class (I always model what I expect students to do), visited the foundational sites, and created word clouds for them.  The topic I investigated for the exemplar was Internet Censorship.  I specifically used as the corpus the body of text in each of the links I provided on the "Issues" page (the background page was about censorship more generally, while the issues page focused on the internet specifically).  The resulting word cloud was, to me, quite interesting and I will need to go back and explore the items that were highlighted more closely.

I can honestly say that I am truly excited to incorporate this project and to examine the results.  I am even more excited to share the results and to potentially inspire a new method of inquiry for our students.

Blog Post #3

For the "visualization" activity, I chose to create word clouds for Kate Chopin's The Awakening, a book that literally changed my life and enabled me to focus my scholarly interests.  The book was published in 1899; Chopin died five years later in 1904.  She is one of the most important feminist writers in American history and she captured in this novel the struggle with which I, myself, struggled for most of my life, the struggle between conformity and individuality, between the perceived self and the actual self.  Two quotes from the novel sum this up nicely:

• "At a very early period she had apprehended the instinctively the dual life - that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions."

• "She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world." 

I located the text through Project Gutenberg, copied the body of the novel, and pasted it into Wordle.  The word cloud created from this corpus was interesting to me, mostly because it captured the important characters, but not necessarily the important themes (or what I believe to be the important themes):

I then pasted the body of the novel into Voyant.  The initial word cloud was comprised of little more than "and" and "the," so I had to edit it and apply the English Taporware stop.  The resulting word cloud is nearly identical to the Wordle word cloud, with the major difference being that I couldn't figure out how--if it is even possible--to manipulate the font and colors:

The visualizations reveal little to nothing with regard to what I, and scholars like me, consider to be important about this text.  To be sure, the characters are important and Edna is the most important, but the individual thoughts, the internal conflict, the struggle to be an individual in a society that demands conformity for women, are absent.  There are some hints at this conflict as the words "thought" and "think" appear (heaven forbid a woman at the turn of the 20th century should think!).  What I find interesting about the word clouds are the words that, in my opinion, emphasize the constraint that Edna feels, words like "husband," "children," "house," "woman," "Mrs," "Madame," and so on.  Many of these words--and even more in the Voyant word cloud--focus on appearance, which implies conformity and, in Edna's case, constraint.  The one word that stands out to me in the Wordle word cloud and that does not appear at all in the Voyant word cloud is "one."  This, to me, is very telling and suggests (or, at least, implies) Edna's aloneness, her feelings of isolation in a society that demands feminine conformity.  

For my purposes, specifically for the purpose of identifying key terms in texts (I tend to undertake close rhetorical textual analysis with all texts I examine), I find Wordle to be much easier and, for me, more useful in visualizing the important aspects of the corpus.  I also prefer the ability to manipulate the image with regard to its color scheme, font, and layout which for me, as a visual rhetoric scholar, communicates in its own way as much as the text under analysis does.

I have thought a great deal about this with regard to its pedagogical application and have begun to develop what I think will be a spectacular activity for my students in HUC117--Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication.  When I proposed the course for Pathways, I included a research assignment about some aspect of computer-mediated communication that asks students to investigate a particular issue, research it, identify both scholarly articles and credible online texts/sources, and then to create a webpage that presents the research and their argument about it that includes hyperlinks as a means of citation.  Students often, especially in an introductory-level courses, have difficulty articulating arguments.  For the Spring 2014 semester, I will incorporate this visualization activity as part of the student research assignment.  For the different articles and sites student locate, I will have them copy and paste the corpus into Wordle and/or Voyant and create word clouds,  I will then ask them to include the image of the word cloud(s) on the webpages they create and to discuss the important themes or topics that emerge as the result of the word clouds with respect to the topic each student chooses.  For instance, if a student chooses to investigate the possibilities of artificial intelligence, s/he might find ten sources and create a word cloud using the corpus for all the sources.  The words that emerge might lend themselves to a more in-depth discussion about the important issues concerning artificial intelligence.  At the very least, this sort of visualization might spark interest in students who otherwise might not get excited about the research process.

I'm excited to move forward with this and to apply this strategy not only to my own scholarship, but also as a pedagogical activity to facilitate student research and critical thinking.  I look forward to sharing the results.

Blog Post #2

Warwick's discussion centers on the language of the visual and the means by which reliance on the written word has deprived many of us of the ability to read and interpret visual images.  She briefly recounts her visit to Thessaloniki, Greece where she had difficulty understanding the mosaics and marble carvings because she was unfamiliar with the meaning embedded in the images.  She then discusses how technology impacts the notion of the written (and published) word.

Warwick then turns her attention to the various factors involved in reading.  She argues, "reading even the simplest text is a highly complex cognitive task, involving what Crowder and Wagner (1992:4) describe as 'three stupendous achievements':  the development of spoken language, written language, and literacy."  She discusses text-based factors, reader-based factors, and situational factors as elements that influence one's ability to both read and interpret a text, factors that are different for each of us given our life experiences, our racial or socio-cultural background, etc.  This complexity and individuality, she argues, accounts for the intrinsic pleasure or satisfaction derived from reading, which she believes, is "difficult to replicate when computational analysis is used."  She then turns her attention to reading the visual.

Reading the Visual is what attracted me to this particular document.  I have focused much of my scholarly attention on reading the visual to discern the messages embedded in visual texts, messages that are often subtle but highly influential, if not always intentional because many are so normalized, messages that rely for their understanding on discrete textual clues that sometimes only particular members of an audience recognize.  It is precisely beause of this personal experience that I agree with Warwick's claim, "Reading a printed text is clearly a subtle and complex analysis technique.  It is therefore not surprising that scholars have made the assumption that digital resources and computational techniques that simply replicate the activity of reading are a pale imitation of an already successful technique.  To be of use to the humanities scholar, it seems that digital resources must therefore provide a different dimension that may change the way that we view our raw materials."

While technology cannot necessarily assist humanities scholars with the actual interpretation of visual texts, it nevertheless provides access to texts that were previously inaccessible to us.  The Internet has provided access to museums and archives and videos and advertisements and magazines in ways previously unimaginable.  My own scholarship has benefited from this access.  In one award-winning essay, I accepted the challenge presented by John Berger in the influential Ways of Seeing (1972) that asked scholars to continue to compare contemporary advertising images with classical images of the nude to determine whether men are still assumed to be the ideal spectator/consumer and women the object of the gaze.  In order for me to effectively compare contemporary ads with classical images, I needed access to the images,w hcih I found not only through museum websites, but through the Artchive, an art resource that includes most forms of visual art from the classical era to contemporary modern art.  It is a resource that is useful for scholars and provides scholarly analyses of many of the images and artists included in its database.  Without this technology, I would have had to attempt to visit many of the world's museums and requested permission to photograph the paintings (a daunting and pricey endeavor).  The curator of the Artchive, Mark Harden, has done all this for me.  In this way, my own scholarship is the very type Warwick insists benefits form technology.  We both agree, however, that technology cannot do the very personal work of interpretation.  While it can prompt "a fresh approach for consideration," the humanist must still exercise her/his own interpretive faculties to "[determine] the significance of the findings."

So what does this mean for my students and me?  Most of my students are both familiar with and excited about the possibilities of technology, however few possess the critical thinking skills necessary to ask the important questions or engage in the very personal task of interpretation.  I am excited about the possibilities inherent in using technology to assist students with asking the questions of interpreting the visual texts we will examine.  The tools might open up ways of seeing that hitherto seemed too advanced or complicated for many students who fear they may not interpret a text "correctly."  (I should mention that my students typically have difficulty understanding that there is no single "right" way to interpret any text, even if there is an agreed-upon general theme in it.)  As I mentioned in a previous post, I am excited about the possibilities inherent in creating word clouds or, if I can figure out a way to compile something like this, image clouds (repetitive images from, say, a music video, such as fragmented body parts, certain camera angles, etc.).  The possibilities are endless and I think this, in and of itself, will excite even the most apathetic students.