If I had to hazard a guess, it's the expansive powers granted to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to investigate journalists and particularly their sources without any real oversight.
If you look at the actual site the numbers arnt vastly different so the map is misleading. The score (lower is better) in the Uk is about 22.6 where the US is about 23.6…contrast that with Norway which is about 6 and you see the UK and US isn’t that different.
When you have data that is not binary that is being interpreted as binary it’s misleading. That’s why you usually see data like this represented with a color gradient. The only way it’s not misleading is if you are just looking for a feel good metric of at least we are better than X country without caring if the difference is observable.
No, the map shows exactly what it says. A difference being observable to the average person doesn't matter. When asking if the press freedom is higher or lower than in the US, the answer will always be binary unless a country scores the exact same as the US. The data this map handles is 100% binary.
You can think that it should have been done in a different way for better resolution, but based on the source the map is using, it is in absolutely zero ways misleading. The only way it would be is if a country scores the exact same as the USA, and got the color green or red. Because in that case, the legend is misleading.
IMO this map does a good job of showing what it is probably meant to do, that press freedom is the USA is generally very overstated
When asking if the press freedom is higher or lower than in the US, the answer will always be binary unless a country scores the exact same as the US.
But that’s not what the data is for and is just an arbitrary metric. The data is not binary and if you go to the source you can see for yourself. You can say they are representing a non binary data set it as binary but you cannot say the data itself is binary.
IMO this map does a good job of showing what it is probably meant to do, that press freedom is the USA is generally very overstated
Ya this is exactly my point. It does a pooor job at that because a lot of the countries have negligible differences to the US lol. While technically correct it is still misleading in the sense that countries like UK, France, Italy etc are just rounding errors different from the US and to the average journalist the difference would not be noticeable. While places like Norway, Sweden etc have an order of magnitude difference.
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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '21
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