Don’t use graphics as a data dump; Edit to focus in on the story

I love a great graphic and the Washington Post’s Wilson Andrews created one to illustrate a story about Congressional stock trades: Overlapping Interests?.

The paper found that “130 lawmakers traded stocks or bonds in companies lobbying on bills that passed through their committees.”

The graphics and accompanying story are part of the paper’s Capitol Assets series examining lawmakers’ personal finances and their professional duties.

Wilson Andrews

Using a timeline format separated into three case studies, the graphic clearly shows lawmakers or their family members buying or selling stocks before committee rulings. The graphics include a sidebar with responses from the lawmakers.

The graphic stood out to me because it made processing the dates, stock transactions and connections to lawmakers a lot easier. Wilson says the key to that is sharp editing.

“Editing for graphics is really difficult because you have to whittle the information down to the bare bones of what the story is,” he says. “You have to focus on the cleanest and clearest way.”

Doing that may mean using one graphic instead of three. He says another key is choosing the best examples. “It’s not always the juiciest example, but the one that clearly explains what’s going on.”