These skills remain his forte—skills he originally developed while at Georgia Tech—though he’s graduated into becoming a full-fledged data journalist. He first got interested in data visualization when he was a teaching assistant for Jim Foley, professor of interactive computing and former dean of the College of Computing. “He inspired me, the class inspired me, and then I started seeking out other data viz projects and figuring out how to incorporate them into my master’s thesis,” Migliozzi says.
The transition from computer scientist to journalist was a natural one for Migliozzi. “I’m a naturally curious person,” he says. “I get a new project every couple of weeks and I’m eager to dive into them, to learn something new. It could be stock market data or oil rig maps. You have to become an expert on a topic very quickly.”
As the amount of data grows exponentially, visual storytelling has become more and more vital, Migliozzi says. “As we’re collecting and analyzing more of it, we’re able to tell stories that couldn’t have been told before.”
A PORTFOLIO OF INFOGRAPHICS
London Phenology Clock
Phenology refers to the timing and seasonality of events in the life cycles of plants and animals, ranging from budding and seeding to migration. This London Phenological Clock refers to data recorded in the city of London, England, from 2000-14, and represents time as seasonally interdependent processes. The data was collected and managed by the Woodland Trust as part of its Nature’s Calendar project, run in partnership with the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, and the clock was developed by Migliozzi for the Environmental Health Clinic at New York University. Ultimately, the London Phenological Clock was made to be displayed at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
What’s Really Warming the World
This infographic snapshot shows how different factors, both natural and industrial, contribute to global warming based on findings from
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Courtesy of Bloomberg; see the full infographic at www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world.
Bloomberg Carbon Clock
This infographic snapshot estimates real-time atmospheric CO2 levels by analyzing the three most recent years of data from CO2 monitored by the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii and feeding them into an algorithim. Each new weekly data release starts a new analysis that yields updated daily clock values and a trend line. Courtesy of Bloomberg; see the infographic at www.bloomberg.com/graphics/carbon-clock.
The Collapse of Oil Drilling
The crash in oil prices has taken its toll. The number of rigs drilling for oil and gas in the U.S. fell this spring to the lowest level in more than 75 years of records. This snapshot is just one part of an animation that shows the deployment of rigs over five years, culminating in the collapse of 75 percent of the rig count. Courtesy of Bloomberg; see the full infographic at www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2016-oil-rigs.
Hottest Year on Record
This snapshot of an infographic animation shows the Earth’s warming climate, recorded in monthly measurements from land and sea over 136 years. The bright red line on top shows how 2015 just beat out the previous record—2014—by the biggest margin since modern record keeping began. Fifteen of the 16 hottest years have been in the 21st century. Courtesy of Bloomberg; see the infographic at www.bloomberg.com/graphics/hottest-year-on-record.
Prescription Drug Prices in the U.S. vs. World
This infographic shows how brand-name drugs are typically higher in the U.S. than other developed countries. The drug industry has argued it’s misleading to focus on U.S. list prices that exclude discounts struck behind closed doors with insurers. A Bloomberg News analysis finds that even after these discounts, prices are higher in the U.S. than abroad. Seven of eight top-selling drugs examined still cost more in the U.S. than most other countries. Courtesy of Bloomberg; see the full infographic and story at www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-drug-prices.