Scribbling Monk

We have a new interactive Flash graphic posted at GraphicLens.

Jeremy, Deb and I are really getting the hang of working on graphics together. We sat down Friday evening and decided to do a graphic using our new GIS mapping software, Avenza's MAPublisher. We found the data at this site, downloaded it and pointed MAPublisher at it. It's really great to feel this jazzed about working.

I've worked in a couple of the blue-state media centers and have fond memories of my colleagues there and the areas in general, though I don't miss D.C. traffic at all. We all have biases but they become blinders to alternative perspectives when colleagues, neighbors and the media all take the same perspective.

This interactive Flash map shows that most of the top national media headquarters are in counties that voted for Kerry in 2004. Most journalists working in the national media live in large metro areas that voted for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. Maybe this has something to do with the perceived and measured liberal bias in the mainstream media.

Maybe a good exercise for media consumers would be to tally how many column inches or minutes of air time of their local media are locally generated and how much comes from some national media source.