Tag Clouds have been around for a while…
They offer a great visualization of what topics are ‘hot’ within a given framework, and they can work in a variety of settings. You could have a tag cloud of search terms being used on Google, stocks mentioned in posts on Twitter, or tags assigned within a single blog. A tag cloud works by showing the most common items as large and bold while the less common ones are small and somewhat faded.
They give you a good feel for what’s in a content set with just a quick scan…
That why I found these Tag Clouds produced by Thomas Hawk so interesting:
Politics is full of words. They can create a fog of ambiguity that confuses issues and obscures positions.
And sometimes politicians choose words specifically for that purpose…
What Thomas Hawk did is a great way to cut through that fog. The top cloud is an analysis of terms that were used in John McCain’s acceptance speech, and the bottom is of the terms used in Barack Obama’s. It’s great way to see what images each candidate is trying to invoke, and how they are using words to shape perceptions about themselves and their agendas. There are clearly some similarities in these two clouds, but also some interesting differences.
Dig in and enjoy…
NOTE: I am posting this is a completely non-partisan context. The only endorsement going on here is for cool data modeling approaches.
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