Simon Munzert

Hands Reaching Up From Hell, Wat Rong Khun Temple, by Chalermchai Kositpipat, 1997

Do You Think You Can Tell How a Neighborhood Voted Just by Looking Around? (Published 2021) An interactive, street-level tour of America’s full political landscape.

🎅5️⃣ Do You Think You Can Tell How a Neighborhood Voted Just by Looking Around? By Emily Badger, Josh Katz, Kevin Quealy, and Rumsey Taylor from @upshot.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

It’s also a reminder of what online data journalism can achieve: experiencing rather than just reading about data is just so effective - in particular if it quietly pushes you to rethink how much you can really infer from what you see.

What We Learned From 15 Million Guesses About a Neighborhood’s Politics (Published 2021) Can sidewalks, pickup trucks and American flags offer clues? Revisiting readers’ perceptions of politics, density and place.

Challenge your visual stereotypes with this one. Voting behavior meets geography meets a quiz – three things close to my heart. After doing the quiz, check out their write-up www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Do You Think You Can Tell How a Neighborhood Voted Just by Looking Around? (Published 2021) An interactive, street-level tour of America’s full political landscape.

🎅5️⃣ Do You Think You Can Tell How a Neighborhood Voted Just by Looking Around? By Emily Badger, Josh Katz, Kevin Quealy, and Rumsey Taylor from @upshot.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🎅4️⃣ 1 Pixel Wealth, by Matt Korostoff eattherichtextformat.github.io/1-pixel-weal...

It’s as much art as it is data communication (and has in fact inspired art projects, e.g. kochxbos.com/english). There are similarly powerful creations by Matt — worth exploring if you care about how design can shift our understanding of scale and inequality: www.airandsteel.xyz/posts/on-mko...

Not a data-journalism piece per se, but one of the most creative and effective visualizations I’ve seen for conveying the sheer scale of wealth at the very top. It gives you an immediate, almost physical intuition for what “obscene richness” means in practice.

🎅4️⃣ 1 Pixel Wealth, by Matt Korostoff eattherichtextformat.github.io/1-pixel-weal...

So trug die AfD den Hass in die Parlamente 340.000 Absätze, 15.831.486 Wörter. Unsere Analyse aller Reden der AfD in deutschen Landtagen zeigt: Über „Remigration“ spricht sie nicht nur auf Geheimtreffen. Seit zehn Jahren bereitet die AfD dem F...

🎅3️⃣ So trug die AfD den Hass in die Parlamente, by Eric Beltermann, Nina Breher, Hendrik Lehmann, Markus Günther, and Lennart Tröbs @tagesspiegel.de interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/von-mess...

The fentanyl funnel: How narcos sneak deadly chemicals through the U.S Drug traffickers transport fentanyl-making chemicals from China to Mexico through the United States. To pull this off, they employ what’s called the “master carton” smuggling scheme.

🎅2️⃣ The fentanyl funnel: How narcos sneak deadly chemicals through the U.S., by Daisy Chung, Laura Gottesdiener, Drazen Jorgic and Kristina Cooke www.reuters.com/investigates...

Also: This is data journalism as civic guard: exposing how public discourse has been shifted over years — not hidden scandals, but normal parliamentary speeches, parsed systematically. Anyone concerned about democracy should read this.

(A German piece this time; I'll be back with English content, I promise) This interactive story has it all. A massive, scientifically curated text database, hand-picked data points (here: unmasking quotes of AfD politicians), raw data access, and great visuals.

So trug die AfD den Hass in die Parlamente 340.000 Absätze, 15.831.486 Wörter. Unsere Analyse aller Reden der AfD in deutschen Landtagen zeigt: Über „Remigration“ spricht sie nicht nur auf Geheimtreffen. Seit zehn Jahren bereitet die AfD dem F...

🎅3️⃣ So trug die AfD den Hass in die Parlamente, by Eric Beltermann, Nina Breher, Hendrik Lehmann, Markus Günther, and Lennart Tröbs @tagesspiegel.de interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/von-mess...

The data's not the star in this story - slick interactive storytelling is. A kids’ book aesthetic paired with a deadly story. Brutal, and super effective.

The fentanyl funnel: How narcos sneak deadly chemicals through the U.S Drug traffickers transport fentanyl-making chemicals from China to Mexico through the United States. To pull this off, they employ what’s called the “master carton” smuggling scheme.

🎅2️⃣ The fentanyl funnel: How narcos sneak deadly chemicals through the U.S., by Daisy Chung, Laura Gottesdiener, Drazen Jorgic and Kristina Cooke www.reuters.com/investigates...

2️⃣4️⃣🎁🎄 Doing something new for Advent this year: one great data journalism piece per day until Dec 24. I’m teaching a data journalism course @hertieschool.bsky.social next semester, so this is partly selfish homework. But maybe interesting for others too.

And if you haven't seen @puddingviz.bsky.social, do check it out. A great rabbit hole from a team that, as they put it, “makes awesome stories with data.”

Let’s start with a fun one... The Pudding’s piece on love songs is a delight. They take a simple measurement question and turn it into a wonderful interface for exploring how “love” appears in pop music over the decades.

Is the Love Song Dying? We categorized songs in the Billboard Top 10 to see if love songs are on the decline.

🎅1️⃣ Love Songs, by David Mora and Michelle Jia at The Pudding. pudding.cool/2024/11/love...

First piece drops... now.

If you have favorite pieces—ideally not behind a paywall—I’d love to see them. Anything where data work is done really well. Replies or DMs welcome.

2️⃣4️⃣🎁🎄 Doing something new for Advent this year: one great data journalism piece per day until Dec 24. I’m teaching a data journalism course @hertieschool.bsky.social next semester, so this is partly selfish homework. But maybe interesting for others too.

PhD ✅ in Berlin ✅ on media and behavioral economics ✅ working with @ariannaornaghi.bsky.social and Egon Tripodi ✅✅ I'd immediately apply but I’ve aged out - maybe you haven't?

We have a new tenure-track job in @lsegovernment.bsky.social at AP level (empirical political science, open subfield): jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... Please apply and share with colleagues who might be interested!

Had an absolutely amazing time! Great presentations + discussions, incl. impressive data collections from 160 treatments to 30,000 respondents

Thank you for the immaculate organization @eliaskoch.bsky.social @cornelius-erfort.bsky.social @hannahrajski.bsky.social @simonsaysnothin.bsky.social

So great to be in Berlin for this fantastic @zweitstimme.bsky.social workshop!

I presented joint work with @bjarneck.bsky.social and @bramwauters.bsky.social on the limited effects of mobilizing measures following the abolition of compulsory voting in Flanders.

🎉 Kicking off the Zweitstimme.org Workshop!

We’re looking forward to two days discussing new work on Elections, Public Opinion & Elite Behaviour.

Today’s sessions:
👉 Panel I – Elites
👉 Panel II – Participation
👉 Panel III – Party Strategies

Huge thanks to @hertieschool.bsky.social for hosting us!

Demokratie: Wenn die Rechte mitregiert, wird sie nicht geschwächt – im Gegenteil Eine Untersuchung von 57 Ländern zeigt: Wenn die Rechte in Verantwortung kommt, gewinnt sie dazu. Daraus lässt sich für Deutschland lernen.

📣 New op-ed in Süddeutsche Zeitung: What the data say about the “Brandmauer”

I summarize key findings from a study with @anninahermes.bsky.social across 57 democracies

➡️ Far-right parties don’t get weaker in government, they get stronger (~6 points by the next election)

tinyurl.com/4j6jaud2

Heizen: Füllstand der Gasspeicher ist zu Beginn der Heizsaison sehr niedrig Die deutschen Speicher für Gas sind nur niedrig aufgefüllt. Sollte der Winter sehr kalt werden, könnte es bereits im Januar zu Versorgungsengpässen kommen.

Aber Habeck www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2...