Reviewing on Intro& Chapter 1 of How Charts Lie

Last week, I have read the intro and Chapter 1 of How Charts Lie, which is mainly about how charts deceive readers.
This reminds me of my misunderstanding when I read newspapers and magazines.There are several ways:

1. Some pictures are very good-looking and make people feel pleasing to the eye, so readers will not question their authenticity, such as beautiful population density maps. Additionally,  there are some topic articles with very explosive information, and people rarely question whether the based data is true or false.

2. Some figures may be selected from the main theme of the article to present data. This is to mislead the reader with data. An excellent data visualization chart really makes people understand the meaning of the article in an instant. In the fast-paced reading rhythm, the articles are all about the subject. Combined with the trend or comparison of the chart, the reader can easily accept the idea of ​​the article. They will even be proud of their speed of receiving knowledge and information. However, it is a trick that readers will choose not to read the reasoning of the article, which is both time-consuming and energy-consuming and just read the easy charts instead.  This situation is extremely difficult for readers to overcome and we should be alert.

3, Some charts do not match its title. Basically, the chart and the main idea are two things. these operations of hanging sheep's heads and selling dog meat will make the article misunderstood. As a reporter, long-term inpatient and restless work will make people more and more impetuous and lose confidence.

Here is an example: the title of the webpage is that "Transparency: Which Countries Invest the Most in Alternative Energy?"  but the graph is mainly telling the production instead of the investment.   we should set up a good habit to report the truth although this unmatching happens everywhere nowadays.

In short, after reading this book, I know more about some frameworks and systematically understand the nature of data and charts and the operation methods of them. I am more clear about the storytelling with data and charts, and it is no longer a matter of swallowing since When students of the MSBA program will indeed fall into the strange circle of beautiful drawing and self-satisfaction when they are doing the project. However, I knew that the data is sometimes used as an adjunct to evidence, not the real subject. In other words, data can lie, and there is selective transparency existing before I read the book. But there was no evidence at that time, and one cannot say too arbitrarily that the data is wrong.

Indeed, charts can lie, but we also need to be able to reveal their lies scientifically and have the courage to significantly improve these charts.