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Two recent visualization projects posted on Many Eyes–an offshoot of IBM’s Collaborative User Experience research group–use frequency diagrams to examine the tone and emphasis of recent political speeches. Presenting the data as overlapping text clouds, a work by Martin Wattenberg compares two recent speeches by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on housing, revealing what Wattenberg sees as contrasting emphases on “down-to-earth” language and regulation.
The second visualization of text allows viewers to compare how perceptions of race in public life have changed across generations. Similar in format to Wattenberg’s exploration of the recent addresses on housing, a work by Fernanda Viegas compares Barack Obama’s March 2008 “More Perfect Union” speech given in Philadelphia to Martin Luther King’s classic “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963. The image reveals subtle differences in rhetoric, such as King’s emphasis on freedom and Obama’s highlighting of community.
. Historian Shae Davidson's research interests include public policy and the relationship between culture and civil society. His publications range from articles on industrial history to absurdist poetry.
