I picked a piece of data journalism done by FiveThirtyEight called simply “[Gun Deaths in America] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/gun-deaths/ .” This piece illustrates the “why” and “how” of gun related deaths in the United States.
Of the 33,000 gun deaths in America, FiveThirtyEight says that nearly two-thirds are suicides, and most of the suicides are men over the age of 45. Another large percentage are homicides, and next is accidents. Mass shootings and terrorist attacks account for a much smaller percentage – though those are the ones that get the most media attention.
What works is that it takes a big problem and simplifies it. It also challenges potential stereotypes created by the media coverage that most deaths are related to mass shootings. This piece of data journalism does a great job and exposing the truth. By using different colors to represent different types of deaths you can really see the breakdown of types of deaths related to gun violence.
The only problematic part of this piece is that it does not humanize and the scale does not accurately show how many people die. 33,000 is a lot of people. I didn’t feel like I was able to grasp that number with this piece. I was able to grasp how most people were killed – but no the enormity of the number was lost.