Category: Class blog

My introduction to Google Fusion Tables

This week, I took on a new challenge and the outcome was a Google Fusion Table. Google Fusion Tables is a useful tool that gathers data into an organized visual. In my opinion, this is the way I prefer to see data. Data can usually be confusing and hard to read or understand, but when it’s in some kind of chart or picture it instantly becomes easier on the eyes.

I chose to mimic a Fusion Table we practiced in class based on the 2016 Michigan voter turnout organized by county off the Michigan Secretary of State website.

With the data available on the website, I was able to download it onto my computer and then upload it up on Google Fusion Tables.

This is the data downloaded off the Secretary of State website.

After letting Google Fusion Tables do it’s magic, I got a literal map of my data. Voter turnout was shown geographically by each county in Michigan.

Google Fusion Table map of voter turnout by county in Michigan.

Google Fusion Tables is a tool I am happy to have explored. It will help my readers and I in understanding data and furthermore, allow us to not be intimidated by any complicated spreadsheets that hide beneficial information!

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Using Social Media

for the News

More and more people are moving to social media for the latest news. Advertisers are looking to social media. What one is used most or most efficient for their needs? After my research was finished I was surprised by the results.

Top Three

  1. Facebook                                        3. Twitter
  2. YouTube

Bottom Three

  1. Tumblr
  2. WhatsApp                                    3.Reddit

 

 

E! News presents The Rundown

Back in September of 2017, E! News decided to launch a new show called The Rundown. It airs on Snapchat in the discover section.

The idea is to break down all the major pop culture stories, while having fun with it with the host. So far it’s gotten positive reviews.

The show has worked due to the idea of getting all your major stories broken down in five minutes. Plus it’s on the go and can be watched anytime.

Now E! has decided to move the show to a bi-weekly segment. E! states its due to the success of the show, but does that really make sense?

Tuition data for 16 Michigan universities

The school tuition data provided information regarding the cost of attending public universities in Michigan. The data was organized in an excel sheet, and it showed the cost of tuition and fee, books and supplies, room and board, transportation, MISC expenses, and the district total of sixteen universities of Michigan. 

This data presented general information, and it wasn’t specific regarding if the cost was applied for full time or part time students. Also, the provided data is from 2011-2012, and when I looked at this data, I was interested to know how different is the data for the year of 2016-1017 compared to this data.

The data showed attending costs of sixteen universities in Michigan. Even though the average cost of most of the sixteen universities is between $20,000 and $22,000. However, there is a big difference in cost between the university with the highest cost and the university with the lowest cost.

The university of Michigan Dearborn has the lowest total district cost of $15,419.36, where the Kendall college of art and design of Ferris state university has the highest district cost of $26,858. I was surprised to find out that the university of Michigan has the lowest district total cost and that led me to have a series of questions. First, is the difference in total cost related to the education quality? Second, what data should I look for to determine education quality in both the universities with the highest and lowest total cost rate? I decided to look at graduation rates and student employment numbers after graduation for both universities.

A world of pirates

The data set that I believe will be captivating is most popular illegal  downloads based on a four day data capture by The Guardian. Although this article only writes about popular Christmas movie downloads, having this data readily available has me wondering about a couple different scenarios.

How many people download and or illegally stream movies premiering in theaters, television shows etc. Also, how many people do not have cable service or video streaming services like Hulu or Netflix?

This type of data set would prove helpful in writing a blog piece on this subject due to its analysis of the term “popular” and transitioning that to what actually is popular. For example, the premier of “Game of Thrones” may have had 10 million views through a sanctioned cable provider, we have people who use piracy sites to view them as well.

The article specifies the type of movies that were downloaded, timeframe of when data was collected, and the software used to collect the data. The article certainly raise the question: Are we living in a world of modern pirates?