The diagram above is a graph that I have attempted from the tutorial question which asked us to show the relationship different variables if we were to present it to the company's stakeholders. From the previous lecture, we were told that an information graphic must be simple and informative, but I produced a pretty bad one although I used some correct method of using line graph and pictogram. While I was trying to show the correlation between gross expense, cost of fuel and cost of fuel as a percentage, I failed to show the relationship between the gross revenue and gross expense. A line graph should be used instead so that stakeholders know how the increase of the cost of fuel affects the company overtime. Another important mistake found in this graph is that the net profit and net lost cannot be determined as this information is significant for shareholders. Overall, this graph would cause confusion among the viewers of what sort of information is being represented, however, it would be presentable if some alteration is to be made to this graph.
Upon realizing how painful it was to put four information into one graph, it made sense to me that to make an effective information graphic requires highly skilled individual because one have to consider to put both verbal and visual information at once. As our brain is the laziest part of body, this explains why visual has an impact on the audience than verbal. The Wharton study in the United States shows that the retention of verbal presentation was only 10% and it was found that 83% of information relayed to the brain in visual presentations comes through the eyes.But the combination of both would attain a greater impact because they complement each other. Tufte (1983) further emphasized that 'words and picture belong together'.
As the technology is advancing, information graph is widely used ranging from the business world to the media. Rather than just communicating verbally, the media combine it with visual aids to grab audience's attention. However, as far as ethics is concerned, information graphics can be distorted and misleading. Benjamin Disraeli advocated that 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." One of the reasons for this is because information graphics producers emphasized on entertaining and capturing the reader instead of focusing on the reliability of the information (Moen, 1987).
Overall, information graphics is effective in conveying both verbal and visual information. Although its producer intended to entertain the audience, ethical issues should also be considered in order to give an accurate and reliable information.
References:
Hocko, J.M. (n.d). Merging Verbal and Visual Media in Information Graphics. Retrieved from http://www.jenhocko.com/bentley/hf730/vis_verb.pdf
Lester, P.M. (1995). Informational graphics. Visual Communiccation: Images with messages (pp187-211), California: Wadsworth Publishing
Pease, A., Pease. B. (2004). The definitive book of body language. New York, NY: Bantam Dell
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