This is a more wonky thread about how I made this visualization in #Rstats using the awesome visNetwork 📦...

sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-cron…
First step is to create the underlying network data. We need one file of "nodes" - i.e. the people and organizations. And one file of "edges" - i.e. the connections between them.

I created these by hand, based on excellent investigate journalism: ImageImage
Now we can pull these together to create a network visualization!

You'll notice that I included a column for "type" in the nodes file. This allows me to use different icons for people vs firms vs political organizations. Image
All the icons are taken from @fontawesome. I *think* the visNetwork 📦 currently only works with fontawesome version 4.7, which is a bit limited – e.g. I decided to use a book icon to represent the fringe Evangelical Christian sect "Exclusive Brethren"! 😂 Image
I very much enjoyed getting to use the "incognito" icon to represent all the unknown donors that have funded Tory MP Owen Paterson's overseas jaunts! Image
The icons are also scaled by how many "edges" connect to each "node".

Unsurprisingly, this means that the UK government and the Conservative party emerge as the most connected nodes in this network! ImageImage
The great thing about visNetwork 📦 is that it's SO easy to make this visualization interactive with #RShiny.

You can add pop-up boxes ("tool-tips") that show more information when the user hovers over a node or edge – perfect for linking to the original reporting that I used. Image
Check out the full code and data on github! github.com/sophieehill/my…

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More from @sophie_e_hill

9 Nov
The cronyism in this Tory government is so out-of-control that I honestly couldn’t keep track… so I combined my two main skills (puns and #Rstats) to create this interactive visualization.

Introducing… My Little Crony!

sophieehill.shinyapps.io/my-little-cron…
As a bonus, some rare archival footage of me creating this visualization:
Read 6 tweets
3 Oct
Ep 2 of "Suspicious Activity" (a podcast on the #FinCENFiles by @pineapplemedia and @BuzzFeedNews) recounts how George Osborne lobbied US regulators NOT to prosecute senior execs at HSBC...

podcasts.podinstall.com/pineapple-stre…
... which is a brilliant illustration of "structural power" as developed by folks like @PepperCulpepper and @RaphaelJReinke, as well as @Cornelia_Woll's "collective power of inaction".

Check out the podcast and then follow-up with some further reading from #polisci! (a 🧵)
Culpepper & Reinke (2014) use the idea of "structural power" to compare and contrast the UK and US bank bailouts in 2008.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.11…
Read 11 tweets
1 Oct
Harvard will continue employing David Kane, who has never published in a statistics journal and has a history of making basic stats errors, as Preceptor of Statistical Methods.

This isn't just failing upwards. This is affirmative action for racists.

thecrimson.com/article/2020/9…
The 🧾's:

In 2006, David Kane wrote a blog post on the Harvard @IQSS website, accusing the authors of a study published in Lancet of fraud.
The Lancet study, which estimated excess deaths in Iraq due to the war, involved a survey with a near 100% response rate.

Kane argued that this was indicative of fraud.

(Note: Kane's blog post is no longer available but it was quoted on @crookedtimber)
crookedtimber.org/2006/10/18/flo… Image
Read 23 tweets
25 Sep
So it turns out that the Harvard instructor who invited Charles Murray to speak in his class also blogs under a pseudonym and... it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect... Image
Most of his posts involve him offering an in-depth commentary about events at Williams College, where he graduated from in 1988 but doesn't seem to have any current affiliation...
Here he is mocking a "Diversity, Inclusion, Race Equity" meeting

ephblog.com/2020/09/25/dir… Image
Read 10 tweets
24 Sep
a recap of the Harvard Gov department's anti-racist efforts so far in 2020... 🧵
1⃣Senior faculty member tries to "both sides" the killing of George Floyd

2⃣Department hires a visiting professor to teach a class on African American political thought 🎉🥳 and... she's an AEI fellow who thinks "the declining interest and involvement in baseball is a consequence of the absence of fathers in the black community" 🤡🤡
Read 8 tweets
20 Sep
📜 New research roundup: social science papers that caught my eye this week! 📜

a 🧵...
"Voter Responses to Fiscal Austerity" by Hübscher, @SattlersThomas, @MarkusWagnerAT

Turns out, Pierson was right! Austerity *is* electorally treacherous - especially in the form of spending cuts (vs tax increases).

cambridge.org/core/journals/… ImageImageImage
The paper argues that recent work finding muted (or even positive!) electoral effects of austerity on incumbent support suffers from selection bias: incumbents avoid austerity when they are electorally vulnerable.
Read 13 tweets

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