Distant Reading and Data Mining Blog

 Data visualizations are there to give visual context to raw data. When looking at a series of data stretched over a period, the data can be overwhelming to consume and understand. Just like any graph data visualizations are broken down. This shows how data affects a particular situation over time. Often through an x and y axis. However, data visualizations are not limited to a classical graphical style. There are many styles and ways of analyzing literary works and other media mediums. In simple terms data visualizations are just visual examples that break down copious amounts of data. Let's compare two concepts (Close Reading and Distant Reading). Close reading stands for microscopic investigation of word choice in literature, whereas distant reading does this through accessing metadata rather than individually recognizing diction. When relating close reading to distant reading it's sort of ironic to think about since the terminology suggests two different things.  

The term distant reading isn't all that distant from the term close reading. That is because Voyage will do the close reading and take all the quantifiable data from a literary works metadata and put it into a data visualization. For example, large books that take forever to read can be analyzed quickly in an effective way through using distant reading. The principle is the same, but the term changed because distant reading provides the same results without the same attention and physical connection. There is certainly something to be said about the reasoning for the term being called close reading as the words are supposed to make you feel something. Therefore, the terminology makes sense as distant reading can have less of an effect. You don't get overwhelmed with the repetition of words due to the automated work being done for you. As a communication student this is quite a widespread practice. Every piece of rhetoric can be broken down for the repetition of rhetorical devices. Just words themselves within a medium suggest the message. As a matter of fact, they tell us more of a message about the artifact we are analyzing than just listening or reading. That is because close reading and distant reading is meant to pull you out of the passive state in which you are a listener. Rather you are seeing and analyzing the particular words used that reinforce an idea. An example would be using Voyant on a Donald Trump speech and the word illegal. Vice versa with Kamala Harris talking about Palestine. Let's look at the difference. Distant reading would be used in an educational analysis or an overview analysis. Whereas close reading is more time consuming but more engaging. It's less likely to allow a listener to view the topic from a broad scope. Distant reading is essentially mining the data within media.  

That brings us to the multimodal use of data visualizations. Sometimes literary works, concepts or timelines of people have lots of complex data that is hard to summarize through close analysis. For these examples we push the lens even further back. When comparing to the project The Six Degrees of Francia's Bacon, it's clear he is quite a complicated individual and he is rich in connections. It would be nice if we could look at the data that is not readable in an organized fashion and make sense of it. This concept sounds a lot like distant reading, right? Turns out its all the same graph word charts, connections between people they are all data visualizations that break down the relationships between values. When it comes to Francia's Bacon, he knows many people that have varying significance depending on the time. Therefore, the visual representation uses circular nodes and a variety of keys to measure the significance of the relationships around him. Even the circular graph itself is confusing. Yet it shows us a way of distantly looking at the scale of people that were influenced by each other in such a brief period of time. Not only does this visualization give us an idea about the scale of the world, but also his importance in history.