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Article: Chart junk? How pictures may help make graphs better.(Report)
- Article from:
- NewsRx Health & Science
- Article date:
- November 22, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 NewsRX. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Those oft-maligned, and highly embellished, graphs and charts in USA Today and other media outlets may actually help people understand data more effectively than traditional graphs, according to new research from North Carolina State University.
Newspapers and magazines often embellish charts or graphs to draw attention to them or to highlight information. Some experts describe these graphic embellishments as "chart junk," which they argue detracts from a graph or chart's effectiveness. So, can those graphics be too distracting, making it more difficult or time-consuming to read a graph accurately?
Researchers from NC State and the University of Idaho ...