scholarly journals Precarious Data: Crack, Opioids, and Visualizing a Drug Abuse Epidemic

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Welhausen

ObjectiveI analyze a collection of data visualizations created during the crack and opioid epidemics, respectively, published by mainstream news media using three criteria: genre, subject matter, and language used to describe the graphic. I use precarity as a theoretical framework--that is, “a politically induced condition in which certain populations suffer from failing social and economic networks of support and become differentially exposed to injury, violence, and death” (Butler, 2009, p. 35)--to argue that visualizations created during the crack epidemic positioned addicts as criminals whereas opioid addicts have been positioned as patients in need of treatment.IntroductionIn late 2015, two economists studying health-related data inadvertently discovered an alarming trend: death rates for middle-aged, white Americans were dramatically increasing from drug overdoses (Kolata, 2015), particularly opioids (CDC, 2015). The opioid epidemic has since been widely publicized in the media. However, as critics have argued, the government's response to the crack epidemic differs dramatically from an arguably equally devastating “drug epidemic” that hit many inner US cities thirty years ago—the influx of crack cocaine. More specifically, opioid addicts, who tend to be white, have been positioned as patients, whereas in the 1970s and 80s during the war on drugs, heroin and crack addicts, respectively, who tended to be people of color, were criminalized (Hart, 2017; Hutchinson, 2017).MethodsI collected data visualzations created during the crack epidemic for 1/1/86-12/31/92 and for the opioid epidemic from 11/3/15 (the date the NYT covered Case and Deaton's study)-9/30/18 for opioids from the following mainstream news organizations: Newsweek, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles (LA) Times, The New York Times (NYT), The Washington Post (WaPo), Time Magazine, U.S.A Today, and U.S. News and World Report. I then organized each collection by genre (bar or pie chart, line graph, map, etc), subject matter (crime-related, drug use and abuse related, effects on children, effects on health including deaths and treatment, STDs, and trafficking), and also assessed whether the text in the article directly referred to the graphic and discussed the data shown.ResultsSeventy three images were included of the crack epidemic and 100 were included for the opioid epidemic. The majority of graphics created during the crack epidemic were bar and line graphs whereas there was far more variation in the genre of graphics created during the opioid epidemic. The majority of graphics created during the crack epidemic also showed crime-related information (defined as crime rates, location of crimes, number of crimes committed, specific types of crimes such as homicides as well as information about arrests and sentencing) whereas very few data visualizations created during the opioid epidemic were related to crime. Indeed, the majority of these visuals showed effects on health (more specifically mortality). Finally, data visualizations create during the crack epidemic were rarely directed referred in the text of the article, but were usually discussed albeit, along with other visual information. In contrast, data visualizations created during the opioid epidemic were usually directly referenced and overtly discussed.ConclusionsI suggest that these results illustrates precarity (Bulter, 2009) by revealing systemic inequalities that protect some people, but leave others vulnerable through two counter narratives: opioid addiction is a public health issue, but crack addiction is a crime.ReferencesButler, Judith. (2009). Frames of war: When is life grievable? Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.Case, A. and Deaton, A. (2015). Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 112(49): 15078-15083.CDC. (2015). Controlled Substance Prescribing Patterns — Prescription Behavior Surveillance System, Eight States, 2013. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 16, 2015 / 64(SS09);1-14. Hart, C. L. (2017, August 18). The real opioid emergency. The New York Times.Hutchinson, E. O. (2017, June 21). The opioid crisis in black and white. Huffington Post.Kolata, G. (2015, November 3). Rise in Deaths for U.S. Whites in Middle Age. The New York Times.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Trautman

In November 2018, The New York Times ran a front-page story describing how Facebook concealed knowledge and disclosure of Russian-linked activity and exploitation resulting in Kremlin led disruption of the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections, through the use of global hate campaigns and propaganda warfare. By mid-December 2018, it became clear that the Russian efforts leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections were much more extensive than previously thought. Two studies conducted for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), by: (1) Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika; and (2) New Knowledge, provide considerable new information and analysis about the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) influence operations targeting American citizens.By early 2019 it became apparent that a number of influential and successful high growth social media platforms had been used by nation states for propaganda purposes. Over two years earlier, Russia was called out by the U.S. intelligence community for their meddling with the 2016 American presidential elections. The extent to which prominent social media platforms have been used, either willingly or without their knowledge, by foreign powers continues to be investigated as this Article goes to press. Reporting by The New York Times suggests that it wasn’t until the Facebook board meeting held September 6, 2017 that board audit committee chairman, Erskin Bowles, became aware of Facebook’s internal awareness of the extent to which Russian operatives had utilized the Facebook and Instagram platforms for influence campaigns in the United States. As this Article goes to press, the degree to which the allure of advertising revenues blinded Facebook to their complicit role in offering the highest bidder access to Facebook users is not yet fully known. This Article can not be a complete chapter in the corporate governance challenge of managing, monitoring, and oversight of individual privacy issues and content integrity on prominent social media platforms. The full extent of Facebook’s experience is just now becoming known, with new revelations yet to come. All interested parties: Facebook users; shareholders; the board of directors at Facebook; government regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Congress must now figure out what has transpired and what to do about it. These and other revelations have resulted in a crisis for Facebook. American democracy has been and continues to be under attack. This article contributes to the literature by providing background and an account of what is known to date and posits recommendations for corrective action.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Stanislav ALEXANDROV ◽  

The purpose of the research. In accordance with the problem-chronological approach, the article systematized the materials of “The New York Times” newspaper about Nursultan Nazarbayev in the period during 1989-2001. Despite the membership of the Communist Party from 1962-1991, the condemnation of the collapse of the USSR, the promotion of the idea of new economic and political integration in the post-Soviet space, the President of Kazakhstan was portrayed on the pages of “The New York Times” as a progressive independent pro-American politician. Nevertheless, by the end of the second half of the 1990-s there were dramatic changes in the current image, the Kazakh leader began to associate with an autocrat and a corrupt official. This work is aimed at finding the reasons for the transformation of the image of the Kazakh politician. Results. The study concluded that the reason for the transformation of the image of the President of Kazakhstan was the deterioration of relations with official Washington. The favorable image of Nursultan Nazarbayev in “The New York Times” was an indicator not only of the benevolent attitude of newspaper journalists, but also of US loyalty. During the period of partnership with the White House, the image of politician Nursultan Nazarbayev remained pleasant for readers of the New York newspaper. In the late 1980s and the first half of the 1990s. Washington was favorable to Nursultan Nazarbayev, since the president’s policy satisfied the United States: defending independence, switching to a market economy, renouncing nuclear weapons, and access to Kazakh oil. During this period, the negative features of the Kazakh leader were not displayed or smoothed out on the pages of the New York newspaper, while the strengths were intentionally emphasized. After the current American goals in the Central Asian republic were achieved, interest in the figure of Nursultan Nazarbayev began to fade. Over time, scandals related to Nursultan Nazarbayev began to be fully covered by journalists of “The New York Times”, changing the image of the president to an authoritarian and corrupt politician.


1995 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-23
Author(s):  
Immanuel Wallerstein

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, the study of Africa in the United States was a very rare and obscure practice, engaged in almost exclusively by African-American (then called Negro) intellectuals. They published scholarly articles primarily in quite specialized journals, notably Phylon, and their books were never reviewed in the New York Times. As a matter of fact, at this time (that is, before 1945) there weren't even very many books written about African-Americans in the U.S., although the library acquisitions were not quite as rare as those for books about Africa.


2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 562-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Baginski

Imagine that you are lying in a hospital: conscious, partially paralyzed, and terminally ill. Physicians predict that you will die in a couple of weeks. You have heard about the shortage of viable organs in the United States and consider consenting to transplantation of your organs after you die. Trying not to think about your imminent death, you open the New York Times brought by your family and skim the table of contents. You notice an article and slowly start to read. The headline reads “Surgeon Accused of Hurrying Death of Patient to Get Organs.” After you finish reading, you are not willing to donate your organs for transplantation. It does not matter that you are altruistic or that you want your life-sustaining treatment to be removed when your condition worsens. You do not want your death to be hastened. You do not want the physician to play God. You want to die with dignity in a peaceful and friendly environment.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-236
Author(s):  
Kevin L. Stoker

This study analyzes the behind-the-scenes correspondence, from 1928 to 1941, between the New York Times’ news executives and editors and John W. White, who served as the paper’s first Chief South American Correspondent. An analysis of the correspondence and White’s dispatches shows that interactions between news management, foreign governments, and the U.S. State Department influenced White’s writing to the point that he avoided writing about Argentina’s neighbors; provided more positive, “Pollyanna” material; and censored his own dispatches. The study provides further evidence that Arthur Hays Sulzberger meddled in the paper’s news coverage, even before he became Times publisher in 1935. The correspondence between Sulzberger and White also calls into question the romantic myth of the autonomous foreign correspondent, free to report without fear or favor. Instead, it shows that American foreign correspondents faced scrutiny not only from their news executives and editors but also from foreign governments, police officials, local newspapers, Nazi and Fascist spies, U.S. business interests, the State Department, and even the President of the United States.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-51
Author(s):  
Маркина ◽  
Yulia Markina

In this article the author analyzes factors and social conditions that in the 1990s affected the transformation of the editorial policy of the «The New York Times», one of the most respected and influential newspapers, not only in the United States, but worldwide. The author of this article traced trends and conditions of the development of American quality press that turned «The New York Times» from strictly quality newspaper intended for the intellectual elite and high-ranking officials in qualitative mass edition. The publishers were forced to adapt to the wishes and sentiments of new readers. Consequently, their decision was to simplify the official style of respectable «The New York Times» paying more attention to the scandalous articles and the criminal chronicle. The article also explores the thematic focus of updated elite newspaper, addressed now not only to the rich people of high society, but also to representatives of different social groups. The subjects of this article are typological innovations in the newspaper related to social, cultural, economic and political changes in the United States. The purpose of the study is to analyze the above changes in content of the newspaper’s publications.


2000 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga V. Malinkina ◽  
Douglas M. McLeod

This study analyzed newspaper coverage of conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya by the New York Times and the Russian newspaper Izvestia to examine the impact of political change on news coverage. The Soviet Union's dissolution included dramatic changes to the Russian media system. In addition, the dissipation of the Cold War changed the foreign policy of the United States. A content analysis revealed that the changes to the media system in Russia had a profound impact on Izvestia's coverage, but political changes had little impact on the New York Times' coverage.


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
WILLIAM BREITBART

Terri Schiavo died on March 31, 2005, at the age of 41. Virtually thousands of others died or lay dying on that day throughout the world, yet the death of Terri Schiavo gripped not only the attention of the media throughout the United States and much of the world, but the attention of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. President, the Vatican, and millions in the United States and around the world. Why? Well, in the words of U.S. President George Bush, “The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues…. Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected—and that culture of life must extend to individuals with disabilities” (The New York Times, March 31, 2005). Terri Schiavo, in her persistent vegetative state of 15 years duration, was being kept alive, in her Florida hospice bed, with the help of a feeding tube that artificially delivered fluids and nutrition. The attempts of her husband over the last 7 years, in opposition to the wishes of his wife's parents, to remove the feeding tube and allow his wife to die have created a firestorm of controversy and debate in judicial, medical, political, ethical, moral, and religious arenas. When Terri Schiavo died, some 13 days after the feeding tube was removed, the noted civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson said, “She was starved and dehydrated to death!” (The New York Times, March 31, 2005). A Vatican spokesman said “Exceptions cannot be allowed to the principle of the sacredness of life from conception to its natural death” (The New York Times, March 31, 2005). Clearly, the death of Terri Schiavo rekindled a variety of debates that were perhaps dormant but unresolved. The political debate in the United States and the appropriateness of steps taken by the U.S. President and Congress will likely continue through the next cycle of elections and the process of selecting and approving judicial nominations. They will also, undoubtedly, influence several aspects of medical research and practice including end-of-life care. The religious and moral debates regarding the sanctity of life will continue and also significantly impact on medical research and medical practice. For those interested in reading more about these particular issues I refer you to two excellent pieces in the April 21, 2005, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (i.e., Annas, 2005; Quill, 2005). For clinicians and researchers in palliative care, however, the death of Terri Schiavo has raised some rather specific clinical and research issues that must be addressed. These issues pertain primarily to the experience of suffering in the dying process.


Jurnal ICMES ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Hilal Kholid Bajri ◽  
Nugrah Nurrohman ◽  
Muhammad Fakhri

This article is a study of the involvement of the United States (US) in the Yemeni War thas has already taken place since 2015 by using the 'CNN Effect' theory. The authors analyzed documents and mass media coverage and conducted discourse analysis on US mainstream media news, namely CNN and the New York Times. The result of this research shows that CNN and the New York Times did not report the Yemeni War proportionally so that public opinion ignored this war and did not encourage further action from the US government and United Nations to stop the war. This way of reporting is in line with US’ economic-political interests in Yemen and US support for the Saudi Arabia.


Author(s):  
Ron Holloway

INTERNATIONALES LEIPZIGER FESTIVAL FUER DOKUMENTAR- UND ANIMATIONSFILM 2003 The timing could not have been better. Shortly after the 45th Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animation Films (15-20 October 2002) opened with the hit documentary of the year, Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine (USA), the German edition of Moore's bestselling "Stupid White Men" hit the book stands. The biting, acerbic, stinging Bowling for Columbine had been invited to compete at Cannes and was awarded there an especially created "Unique Prize of the 55th Anniversary Festival." And "Stupid White Men," a riotous political satire penned in the journalistic vein of H.L. Mencken and Mike Royko, rode the best-seller list in the New York Times for nearly a year. How did this hard-nose statement on gun-related deaths in the United States and the ongoing battle with the gun lobby in Congress get made in the first place? Armed with a disarming...


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