Module 1: An Introduction to Data Literacy and Data Visualization

The Data Journey

To get started, let’s consider the data visualization[1] in Figure 1.1 below.

A bar graph showing the general trend that fruit production is decreasing within a span of five years.
Figure 1.1. Production of apples, blueberries, cranberries, graphs, and strawberries in British Columbia, 2016-2020.

The underlying raw data went through many stages before it was presented to you in this data visualization. The information had to be:

  • Collected via surveys
  • Inputted into a database
  • Stored on secure servers
  • Cleaned for accuracy and consistency
  • Analyzed to understand the trends 
  • Presented as a bar graph

It is likely that multiple people, with complementary areas of expertise, worked on turning the raw dataset into a well-presented data visualization. 

Deeper Dive

Watch this 4min video from Statistics Canada to learn more about the data journey: The Data Journey: What you need to know for successful navigation

  1. Statistics Canada. Table 32-10-0364-01 Area, production and farm gate value of marketed fruits. Data is reproduced and distributed on an "as is" basis with the permission of Statistics Canada. Retrieved January 9th, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25318/3210036401-eng. Statistics Canada Open Licence: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/reference/licence ↵

License

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Critical Data Literacy Copyright © 2022 by Nora Mulvaney and Audrey Wubbenhorst and Amtoj Kaur is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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