Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Visualizing Journalism

The information I have found/ The story:

The story I have chosen to visualize is a study done on the relationship between the socio-economic status (of a family or living environment) and obesity in children. According to the Canadian Journal of Public Health kids that live in neighborhoods with a lower socio-economic standing have a higher risk of being overweight or obese.  The study targeted kids between the ages of 5 to 17 year olds. The results showed that a kid has a higher rate of obesity under the following living environments:

-kids who live in neighborhoods with higher unemployment rates
-lower than average family income

-fewer neighbors with post-secondary education

The results:
“The percentage of overweight children varied from 24% in areas with high socio-economic status to 35% in low socio-economic neighborhoods.” (Source: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/051104/dq051104b-eng.htm )

The study also gave reasons as to why obesity may more likely occur in kids with lower socio-economic surroundings. Kids in the lower socio economic areas have less access to organized physical activities. The study showed that parents in these low socio economic areas were “three times more likely than other parents to state that their neighborhood parks were unsafe.” From there they took the idea that these kids are getting less physical activity because it's unsafe to be outside where a majority of physical activity takes place for kids.



Potential interview subjects:
-parents of kids who live in lower socio-economic areas (Questions concerning if they think their environment effects their kids ability to be engaged in physical activity/ why or why not?)
-city councillor for the area (Questions concerning what alternatives these teens have)

How I would visualize it/the next step:

They did not have specific data that explained any sort of numbers throughout Canda, it was very generalized. If I was to carry on with this story my next steps would be to gather more specific information and then to follow through with it like this:
1. Map out the different socio-economic areas in Winnipeg (represented by color on the surface of the area)

Additional information for each area would be the following:
- Map of how many parks there are in that area and community centers

- The crime rates that are found in this area
-Find out if there are any ways to figure out the obesity rates per area