Data Visualization
New computer programs offer innovative ways to present and convey information visually–a function particularly important in representing large quantities of data. While much of this information can, conceivably, be conveyed through text, many new visualization tools are appealing precisely because they can communicate certain ideas better than verbal language alone. Often they communicate something that escapes words. Why should scholars accustomed to written forms of communication limit themselves to text when a visualization might convey certain information more effectively?
Let's dive right in! 1: Introduction 
Comments
May 6, 2011: Visualizations in the Humanities
Host: Geoff McGhee and Nicole Coleman
I very much enjoyed this lecture. This lecture was devoted to graphic visualization and how to make sense of material that is already processed and has appeared in graphic form. One thing that caught my attention, as Nicole pointed out, was the different ways in which we can present or visualize data in order to convince an audience about the points that one is trying to make. In other words, visualization helps to “tell a story in the way that we want to tell it”. In that sense, data visualization is manipulated by a\ presenter and helps to mediate a message that otherwise would be difficult to digest by a particular audience. When dealing with visualized material one should always ask:
What is the intention of the author?
How the image is used to mediate the message?
These rhetoric questions will allow us to comprehend better the nature of the data that is presented in a visual form. Certainly, another important thing about visualization is that it can provide new insights.