An article about the stedy fall of kidnappings of various kinds in Argentina. Uses visualizations and graphs based on relatively new data in Argentina to show the decrease in crime in Argentina and the hotspot for it of Buenos Aires.
Also uses data and visualizations to try to explain why there is such a steep decrease in kidnappings, and why it is decreasing at a faster rate than other common types of crime.
https://insightcrime.org/news/datainsights-the-rise-and-fall-of-ransom-kidnappings-in-argentina/
Overlooking the impressive fact that I managed to sneak in spelling errors in two out of three sentences, the article contains a number of smaller errors. One thing this course has taught me is that no data journalistic piece is perfect. For starters, the article continuously makes statements bordering on causal claims. The author states that “Professional kidnappings became prominent during Argentina’s most severe financial crisis…” (Newton, 2023) which, while statistically correct, is said to be the reason why people chose criminal careers in around the time of the new millennium. However, ransom kidnappings have steadily decreased since 2015 and are at an all-time low despite the Argentinian economy again being in financial hardship. Philip Meyer’s (2002) seminal work on precision journalism, arguing that data journalism ought to move closer to social science and its methods, is an example of a school of thought that raises questions regarding these types of statements.
The data used for visualizations in the article is sourced and referenced and does the job. The graphs are correctly presented with all starting from zero and containing intuitive scatter plots. The article contains one map-visualization made in Flourish which clearly shows that most kidnappings occur in Buenos Aires. Taking this into account, a recurring discussion in the literature pertains the importance of aesthetic value and attractiveness of visualizations, i.e. Houston (2019), Cohen (2012). While important to catch eyes in an infinite flux of information, the article in question might not have to do just that. Its readers are likely to be interested in the particular subject at hand and does not need spectacular scrollytelling-type visualizations in order to feel interested or to keep reading.
The example is still effective in the sense that it gets the point across: for some reason – where the reason given might be too strong a claim – kidnappings barely happen anymore in Argentina.