Newsmap illustrates power of mapping/visualization

This is a bit far afield from suicide, but I think worth mentioning here because it illustrates how maps and visualization can present a different, more contextually-sensitive view of a phenomenon, as compared to that which lists and other linear formats can achieve.

I recently became aware of a project called Newsmap, which takes a traditional news feed (Google News) and maps it so that you can see the news landscape in a different way.   The program purports to “to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe.”   In the quick scans I’ve done, I’ve been impressed with how much information can be presented this way, and with how much more context one apprehends from this visual view.