Keep Calm and Carry On? Against the Riots – Be the Change
After the devastation of the 2011 riots we saw hope break despondency and the communities of ‘broken Britain’ rally together to show courage and solidarity in the face of adversity. As quickly as social media was attributed to fueling the riots, so was it quick to facilitate the rebuild – as #riotcleanup took to the trending topics, the broomstick armies took to the streets.
We’ve visually juxtaposed the positive and negative data surrounding the riots, below, to demonstrate the effort the UK is putting in to addressing the fall-out from the devastation that took too many homes, businesses, and lives.
And, we’re hoping, as we continue to monitor the data, we’ll be able to create a second infographic that demonstrates how the message of positivity has spread, and how communities continue to stand together. Whether you’re helping Siva, DeLooting London, rebuilding Reeves or showing solidarity within your own community, there’s a multitude of ways you can help.
Against the riots, be the change.
We’ve created a Twibbon, which you can add to your avatar to show your support for the campaign.
Buzz analysis and design by Jam using JamTrak source: www.digitaltrends.co.uk
Taken from UK buzz only, all facts and figures are approximate
Tweet
Dubstep dave, (while i agree bell may have missed some key issues) i think you have missed the point they were themselves making. What you seem to be saying is that Spreading Jam published a sensational and eye catching graphic in an attempt to gain attention. Isnt this exactly what Chislehurst did?
My point is perhaps intended to provoke but holds some weight. When you consider the area in which Jam operate it becomes obvious that their graphic was intended to “cash in” on the riot buzz but lets take a moment to re-read the Chislehurst article.
“Chistlehurst news a not-for-profit organisation had a record number of visits last week on the back of our raw riot coverage”
Why do I feel like this article is intendid to continue their own riot buzz?
The sad thing here is that Chislehurst news should be trying to help us understand why these riots took place and writing articles that explain the social ills in their area. They do after all claim to be a news source. Instead they have written an article about a campaign launched by a PR agency. Laughable really.
In Jam’s defence what on earth would you expect considering what they do?
Before you ask I am in no way associated with Jam, I did not attent the #riotcleanup nor the #LONDONRIOTS
Bell,
I think you’re missing the point in a big way.
What you seem to be saying is that Chislehurst News published a sensational and eye catching article into an attempt to gain attention. Isn’t this exactly what Jam did?
What Jam did was to create an eye catching image in an attempt to gain attention on the back of a fairly grizzly issue. Because graphic was fairly vacuous (as other posts have pointed out) then there is only one conclusion people can come to… that it was a crass attempt at gaining prominence for the agency and perhaps the clients that the agency represents.
As to the article on Chislehurst News: The website and its Twitter feed provided excellent information, updates plus commentary during and after the riots. I wonder even if you read the apparent offending article to the end because it was well reasoned and balanced. Before you ask, I am not associated in any way to the website, I am just a regular visitor to the Chislehurst site.
So, the difference is this: Chislehurst News published an engaging article that local people wanted to read, for no profit or gain to itself. Jam produced an eye catching graphic (that many have criticised for its lack of substance) which appears to promote the agency for ultimate financial gain. QED.
Jam’s article is written to spark debate and contextualise the use of social media. I am saddened to think Chistlehurst News manage to turn this into a negative feature which “capitalises on the riots”. The fact it closes off with “ChislehurstNews, a not-for-profit community website, had a record number of visits last week on the back of our raw riot coverage” shows the author benefitting from this in their own way.
I am saddened that rather than spread the word and debate in a positive light and bring community together, Chistlehurst news have managed to alienate this article and imprint it with their own negative opinion.
I would think as a non-profit community website Chistlehurst news would have done better at bringing people together rather than generating user clicks as a response to their negativity.
I disagree. This infographic is not there to show complex data or this would not help. This is a visual representation which contextualises the riots and the power of social media.
The fact these graphs do not go into greater statistical details does not mean the representation as a whole has no purpose.
i think this shows the positive influence of social media and how it can be used as a way to act together in a positive manner as well.
Jam’s efforts are positive, and these graphics in no way as previously mentioned obfuscate the meaning and strength behind the data. In fact, had your graphs been filled with statistics and had no visual representation you would not have had these comments on your page as no one would have been interested.
I think its positive in the fact it has both sparked conversation on here, and as an article itself which has a positive overall message that against the riots we can make the change.
Here is our take on this campaign:
http://bit.ly/nwzCuS
Don’t want to be overly negative about it, but this ‘campaign’ doesn’t feel right.
[...] some snazzy infographics that attempt to depict the unrest, or “riot buzz” as it describes it. The graphics and data behind them, which have been criticised by many bloggers for their lack of substance, have [...]
Agree with the above commenters on almost everything.
Using the tag of #LONDONRIOTS to demonstrate negativity can’t be correct as thousands upon thousands of tweets used that tag to talk about news items, clean up attempts and general contributions of help. “All facts and figures are approximate” is a nice get out clause but it ain’t the right way to do things.
As a freelance analyst, I have to ask:
What time period is all of the data taken from?
When did you start measuring? X until Y? The last seven days? The 76hrs after the riots? All of this is important.
“Mentions of locations in riot buzz” is both measured between the 5th and the 11th. As well as the 8th until the 8th. Which one should I read?
I also agree with tom on all but – ‘kudos to the designers’.
The similarities to this TNW infographic from one month ago (including design language, colour-scheme and the use of ‘(XX)mtrak’) are almost confounding!
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/07/04/haye-vs-klitschko-who-won-the-social-media-fight-infographic/
[open them both next to each other and see]
Finally, how are memory card sales relevant?
Did anyone at Jam attend the #riotcleanups?
Thanks for your comments, we always appreciate feedback. This post was never about us – the aim was to celebrate some of the brilliant and positive things people have done in response to the riots in the last week – such as the Deloot campaign and the broomstick armies. The infographic is a visual way of demonstrating how positive discussion on the web has balanced out the initial wave of negativity. We want to do what we can to make sure this positive vibe continues. Surely this is better than doing nothing at all? As a London based company we all felt the impact of the riots and wanted to show our support. The Twibbon is one of many ways that people can show their support for all the positive initiatives that are taking place across the country. Not everyone can take action but everyone can show support towards sustainable change.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment – if there is any particular data you’d like to see in future infographics please let us know.
Its interesting to see how the use of social media is spanning the country and is reflective of current situations and people’s mindset across the spectrum. I think this is a good use of visuals to portay a wide scope of statistics otherwise left unknown by us “jo public”. There is a humour to it all which i think, given the current climate and seriousness off the recent riot situation is well highlighted and indeed needed to help portray some otherwise dull and serious statistics. The section “who is to blame” clearly highlights the thoughts of the nation and its very interesting to see how the power of social media has taken a grip on the people and this comes up top in the poll. Well done to Jam for making use of this powerfull source at a crucial time in todays current affairs
I am inclined to side with both of the above. In this context stylized visuals only serve to obfuscate the meaning and strength behind the data.
This seems to me a thinly veiled exercise in CSR with no greater concern for the matter than your own appearance in the social space.
Whilst I commend those who impartially serve to give visibility, your approach seems a disingenuous attempt to glean client and peer agency favour from what has affected many deeply. That’s #bad btw
I agree with Tom – as a visual it is rather charming but as an infographic it fails miserably. The top half in particular which is simply a stylized Excel spreadsheet does nothing to help people immediately get an idea of the information that is being portrayed.
To me though, silly pictures and irresponsible use of design resource aside, the direst part of this is the creation of a Twibbon for a self-made non-existent campaign which is nothing more than a badge of how useless people are.
“I’m supporting a campaign which doesn’t exist and is simply using up mind-space that could otherwise be put to good use”.
Possibly the most heinous example of an agency trying to promote itself through the ruse of good will I’ve seen in a while. I can imagine how the conversation went down and I imagine that the focus of the conversation was about getting traffic to the Jam blog rather than what Jam could do as a business to genuinely help people affected by the riots.
Hiya!
Firstly, nice one for spreading the word about those good and practical efforts at the beginning of the post.
As to the infographic however, I can’t help but point out that an infographic is meant to illuminate complex data and give the viewer a way of conceptualising and contextualising the very hard to conceptualise or contextualise. Or, they can just look pretty.
It seems to me you’ve actually handled the data in a highly simplistic and confusing way by arbitrarily deciding #riots is BAD and should be in red. You’ve conflated sentiment into a meaningless glob, hence performing the very opposite of a useful infographic which should be to de-tangle complex data and present it in a way that makes it easy to understand or relativise.
You have also included the category “goods looted mentions” which implies a correlation between people talking about something on twitter (conversation/broadcasting) with actual events on the ground (lootings), when that clearly isn’t the case.
So this infographic is basically a posh powerpoint chart (it does look very nice though, kudos to the designers), that obscures and confuses more than it illuminates? Please correct me if I’m being dim.
I’m also wondering what this twibbon stuff is about? To the casual observer it looks like you’ve created a “campaign” out of nowhere and are distributing “twibbons” to support this campaign, whatever it may be.
Sorry this is all coming across really negative but I think this points to a wider malaise – we think putting something on our twitter avatar is a form of action. It isn’t. It is action deferred, a weak conscience balm “I’ve done something now, phew, I’ve contributed”.
You said at the beginning of the post – be the change – I couldn’t agree more. Donating materials or money, getting out there and helping, that’s being the change. Creating a twibbon? I’m not so sure.
Anyway.