1801 newsletter: Game of Thrones, gender inequality and Mayweather vs McGregor

Interactive and data journalism has a gender problem (as does the entire world). Do you need a woman to do some data viz for you? Well, Quartz’s Sarah Slobin has gone and made a Twitter list of a couple hundred of them, so there’s no excuse. Also, the winners of the Online Journalism Awards have been announced, so you should go and read about them here. And here’s your weekly reminder to subscribe to this newsletter if you haven’t already, and please do spread the word.
KNOCK OUT — link

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. And all the pundits proclaiming that Floyd Mayweather Jr, a professional boxer, would of course stroll through his clash with UFC champion Conor McGregor, are out in force. But there certainly was an unknown quantity to the roguish McGregor. The LA Times looked out how the two men and their words compared: the size of the rings, their fighting styles (complimented by a great use of GIFs) and their previous records. Also work a look is a curious interactive they did on how to avoid queues at Disneyland.
GENDER GAP — link

It’s 2017 and gender inequality is alive and real. A furore was sparked recently when the BBC was forced to reveal the salaries of its staff earning over £150,000: predictably, the majority of them were men. It’s great, then, to broader coverage of the issue across the country. Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle, a regional newspaper, has published a direct, wide-ranging account of the problem across the city, using open government data on health, crime, employment and more. Excellent case studies are peppered throughout. Chapeau.
GAME OF TONES — link

A very special place in this world exists for interactives made by super fans — it doesn’t take much to imagine what Trekkies that can code are capable of. Vox’s analysis of the colour used in 66 episodes of Game of Thrones, with penultimate season coming to a close, is perhaps one of the less niche works. But still: niche, it is. There have been more warm hues than cold hues (more fire than ice, as Vox put it). And for each episode there are pretty barcode charts, annotated with the key moments of light and darkness throughout.
PREMIUM LEAGUE — link

Paris Saint-Germain recently signed Brazilian footballer Neymar from FC Barcelona for a cool €222m, a truly astonishing figure, and the highest sum even paid. Even more astonishing? It supposedly makes financial sense. According to analysis by the FT, with the vastly inflating revenue thanks to burgeoning TV rights deals, shirt sales, sponsorship and the like, figures like those can be accounted for over a five-year period. The key part of this piece is one of John Burn-Murdoch’s mega graphics looking at transfer fee vs potential impact on teams.
TOTALLY ECLIPSED — link

Look, I know I need to stop harping on about eclipses, but it has really provided the means for excellent content. The latest angle is how listening patterns to Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart changed as the eclipse occurred. According to Spotify, listening increased 3500% in the United States (and 1000% globally) as the moon’s shadow began to cross the country. As their map shows, the spike in listening spread like a wave from coast to coast. Also in eclipse news: I’d missed this Washington Post piece that takes you over the terrain the eclipse covers and it’s excellent.
FOOD4THOUGHT
I’ve been growing some things in my garden.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter. Please tell me if there’s something you’ve done or have seen that I should check out. I love to discover. Likewise, if there’s anything you like or don’t like about this newsletter, let me know so I can improve.
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