Introduction
This set of data visualization is extracted from the Gallup World Poll results, taken from 2010 to 2018, for the question, “Do the media in this country have a lot of freedom or not?” The answers accepted are “YES”, “NO”, or “don’t know” (“DK”). In the original survey, 160 countries were included. For accuracy purposes, we eliminated countries with an “unspecified” form of government and head of state, as well as those with incomplete data. This data set includes the form of national government and leadership of 70 countries, categorized into constitutional or republic, and ceremonial or executive. The research question this project seeks to answer is “What are the factors that influence people’s perception of the freedom of the media?”
Set 1
We start the visualization project with the map showing the geographical distribution of the percentage of people saying “yes” to the question (See Set 1, Chart 1). On one hand, the chart gives our audience an overview of the scope of our research – namely, the colored region – while the dim areas are either the ones not included in the research or with incomplete data. On the other hand, the visualization shows a distinct pattern: the “Western World,” North America, Europe, Oceania, and other traditionally defined developed regions generally exhibit a darker shade of green, as compared to the rest of the world. We point out this phenomenon to prepare our audience for our arguments on possible reasons behind this geographic pattern: what are the commonalities between these countries shaping their popular psychology so-and-so? In the intersection of cultural, political, and social factors, we find two relevant aspects possibly responsible for this variation, forms of government and head of state, as illustrated below.
Set 2
The second section consists of three charts and examines the trend of the average percentage of people answering “yes” and “no” to the poll question in countries with constitutional and republic governments. The first chart (Set 2, Chart 1) illustrates that from 2010 to 2018, people in constitutional countries have a consistently higher rate of answering “yes”, at around 88 percent compared to people in republic countries, at around 66 percent. Moreover, in both categories, the percentage of people answering yes in 2010 is slightly higher compared to their answers in 2018. This implies that the percentage of people answering “no” (See Set 2, Chart 2) has risen in this time period, and is strengthened by the second chart, showing a slight upward trend.
The third chart (Set 2, Chart 3) further distinguishes between constitutional ceremonial, constitutional executive, republic ceremonial, and republic executive countries. It demonstrates that constitutional ceremonial countries have the highest percentage of people answering “yes” to the poll question, with republic ceremonial countries ranking second. This trend shows that ceremonial leadership results in overall positive perception of freedom in the media. More importantly, this distinction suggests that even though constitutional governments exceed republic governments in receiving positive responses, executive leadership weakens this advantage and is the least positive combination.
Set 3
The third section compares countries against each other within the constitutional and republic categories, and these two categories against each other. We calculated the average percentage of responses in every country from 2010 to 2018, and it provides detailed information for the statistics of each country taken into consideration. For example, in constitutional countries, Denmark ranks the highest and Morocco ranks the lowest. In republic countries, Finland ranks the highest and Belarus ranks the lowest. More importantly, Finland and Denmark, even with different government forms, have a similar rate of positive perception, both at 95 percent. While the lowest average percentage in Republic countries (Belarus: 30 percent) is lower than the lowest in Constitutional countries (Morocco: 47 percent).
Second, In 14 constitutional countries (in Set 3, Chart 1), 13 of them have over 50 percent of people answering “yes”. Only one country, which is Morocco, has an average percentage below 50 percent. This means for countries in constitutional form of government, the rate of a majority of people responding positively is 12 out of 13, or 92 percent. Meanwhile, in 55 republic countries(in Set 3, Chart 2), 47 countries’ average percentage is above 50 percent. So for the countries in republic form of government, approximately 85 percent of countries have a majority of people who believe their media has a lot of freedom. Although this number is very rough because an average over 9 years is taken, it further consolidates our finding that countries with a constitutional form of government have a higher percentage of people responding positively to media freedom. This is illustrated in the third chart (Set 3, Chart 3), which shows that an average of 81 percent of people in 14 Constitutional countries answered “yes” and an average of only 64 percent of people in 55 republic countries answered “yes”.
Conclusion
The result that can be derived from this set of data visualization is that geo-political regions, forms of government, and heads of state all have impacts on people’s perception on freedom of the media. Geographically, countries that are commonly considered in the “Western world” produce the highest percentage of people saying “yes” to the poll question. Countries with ceremonial heads of state contribute most to people’s positive opinions, and people from countries with constitutional forms of government are more likely to believe that their country has a free media than people from republic countries.
Limitations of the Study
Due to the nature of the Gallup World Poll results, there are several limitations in the study. First, the poll question asks
whether the participants believe their country has “a lot of freedom or not”. What qualifies as “a lot” depends on the subjective judgment of the participants, and may vary significantly across people from different backgrounds. Consequently, the poll does not accurately capture and compare results using a sole standard. Second, the data is collected using a self-report questionnaire, which can rarely be independently verified. External factors that may influence the participants to respond in a certain way are not taken into account. Third, the poll is conducted using telephone surveys, meaning that only households with a telephone can be reached. In countries where the socioeconomic gap is significant, opinions from people who do not have access to telephones are left out, resulting in a sampling bias. Lastly, the data provided by the Gallup World Poll are rounded to the nearest integer and are further rounded when an average is taken. This results in some stacked columns in the second chart in the third set, titled “Republic Countries’ Perception of Media Freedom”, to exceed (e.g. Zimbabwe: 101 percent) or fall below (e.g. Haiti: 98 percent) 100 percent.
Work Cited
Gallup Analytics. (2018). Perceptions of Media Freedom Gallup World Poll. Retrieved from
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16lM13maquaZRPYFF064t_22CcsGgzPtk21l0bAr935s/edit#gid=96683562