For the past two years, Bloomberg has been publishing interactive data graphics. I first found them in 2015 after reading their post on climate change. Since then, they posted many more, mostly about politics and finance. A more recent one is about Trump’s cabinet nominees, titled “Trump’s $6 Billion Cabinet: Mostly Men, Mostly White and Not Much Government Experience”.
The data presentation takes the form of two tables: one that compares Trump’s cabinet nominations to the previous two presidents (top picture), and one that gives more detailed information about each nominee (bottom picture). The graphics take special notice of the race, gender, government experience, military experience, and wealth of each cabinet member/nominee.
As the title suggests, the goal of the presentation is first to highlight the similarities and differences between Trump’s cabinet and previous cabinet (his cabinet has roughly the same diversity as Bush’s, but far less government experience than both Bush and Obama), and also to educate viewers about the nominees and cabinet members (achievements, past boards, recent news, public stance on issues, wealth). The categories it chooses effectively reveal a stark contrast between past and proposed cabinets, and the extra information in the table along with the related links for each nominee make it a useful tool to become informed about each person. The experience is a little diminished by the weird scrolling behavior.
The graphic is catered to casual viewers – people who maybe do not follow every political announcement but want a brief overview; a lot of the information would be redundant to people who follow politics vigorously, although the tables give a concise summary that may be good for reviewing.
Overall, Bloomberg’s graphic about the cabinet effectively informs viewers about Trump’s new cabinet – how it’s compares to previous ones, who is on it, and what to expect from the members.