Neutral vs bias

As the journalist said to the linguist…

Linguist: Verbs, adjectives and adverbs… they range from neutral through bias to outright hostile.

Journalist: What’s the difference between neutral and bias?

Linguist: A biased expression is one which can’t be replaced by a more neutral one. For example, saying "Your position is utterly wrong" could be expressed more neutrally as "You may be mistaken."

Journalist: A word cloud shows it better than just talking about it.

Linguist: Good idea. Then graph it.

________

Voice-over
But the distinction between bias and hostile is fuzzy. Better to subsume hostile into bias.

...

Graphing and Mapping 1812

Clément and Minard discuss Napoleon’s Russian campaign…

Clément: How would you tell the story?

Napoleon's losses on the
Russian Campaign 1812

Minard: Graph it. 
Months on the independent variable. Soldier deaths the dependent. Numbers are dramatic. Simple.

Clément: OK, so that’s the What, When, Who. What about the Where? Where does the where go?

Minard: Hmm.

Clément: And the whys? The temperatures, Moscow deserted, Berezina river crossing, these all decimated Napoleon’s army.

Minard: Oui. Comment à ce sujet? We use a line of decreasing size, east to west and back. Splits and rejoins. Dates plotted. Weather temperatures falling along the retreat.

Clément: Magnifique!
___________

Voice-over

Beginning from a simple account of numbers a story is built. And told on a graph.

Charles Minard did it brilliantly in 1869. He puts “art” in the chart.

Edward Tufte says it "may well be the best statistical graphic ever drawn."

See a short film about visual graphics at http://youtu.be/fp8gmYE8Xuo

What is your opinion about the design of visual graphics?

Figurative map of French Army losses
on the 1812 Russian Campaign

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