In a blog entry last week, Seth Godin shared the following clip illustrating changes in the earth’s temperatures since 1880, and posed the question: If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s a short video worth?
While video is unquestionably a very powerful communication tool, I believe the most important lessons from this video are analytical in nature, specifically: 1.) Challenge the starting and ending data points in any time series analysis; and 2.) Select a scale that accurately reflects the variation in the data.
To the first point, why start the time series in the year 1880? Would our conclusion change dramatically if instead we chose 1950? How about 1500? What if we went back as far as 1000, or even further? The good critical thinker will ask these questions. In the interest of keeping this discussion analytical instead of political, I’ll leave it to you to explore the answers to these questions. If you’re interested, this site will help.
To the second point, note how the colors on the map fluctuate dramatically from dark blue to brilliant red. What was your reaction viewing this? Time to buy beachfront property on Greenland, perhaps? How much does this suggest earth’s temperatures have varied during this period? The actual answer – found in a simple chart on the same website as the sample video – is about 0.8 degrees. Yes, less than one degree. Again, my intent is not to make this a political discussion, but simply to say that as viewers of the video, and consumers of the underlying data, it’s our responsibility to understand the scale in use and thus the variation in the data.
So, yes, video is indeed more powerful than pictures, charts, and words. And its role in data communication in business is ever increasing. As Problem Solvers, we need to develop an ever more critical eye in response.