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This weblog was developed and is supported by the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, CUNY
Nov
2
Election coverage, Interactive-style
Posted by Vera Haller on Nov 2, 2008 under: multimedia, online news, politics
As news organizations fall over themselves to post the best and most intricate interactive elections maps, I thought it would be useful to pull some of them together in one place to make comparison easier.Election results and Web sites seem like a match made in heaven — lots of data combined with a visual background that allows you to link information to geographical location.
You can even allow users to customize their results based on the races they are most interested in following.The ultimate in this genre has been CNN’s on-air, big board election map that calls up the most detailed data with just a tap of the finger by its political reporter John King. The danger with these types of reporting tools is often reporters and designers try to squish too much information into one format.
The end result can lead to information overload and confusion.I offer you a few examples that cross the spectrum from simple to sophisticated:
- Scientific American has a very simple map that highlights just the battleground states.
- The Daily Kos map may lead to information overload. I feel you need a lot of time to figure out this map and then get something out of it.
- Here is CNN’s online election tracker.
- The LATimes.com’s interactive electoral calculator allows readers to predict which state will go red or blue and then will give you an updated count of electoral votes.
- The BBC’s election poll tracker is more like an interactive timeline that follows developments across the life of the campaign.
- On the Fox News interactive map, users will be able to customize the election data they follow by entering their zip code or state.
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