If you had to guess which holiday is the biggest beer selling holiday, what would you say? Or would you even care? Well on this chart found on the USA Today website, you can find the chart that will give you all of your answers, or will it? This graphic proposes that most perhaps would think that the Super Bowl could be the largest selling beer "holiday."
The word "holiday," brings up the first problem with this graphic. I don't really think that it is fair to be comparing actual holidays like the 4th of July and Christmas, with the Super Bowl. To myself and most others I would not identify the Super Bowl as a holiday. All of the other top 9 seem to be actual holidays until it gets to the Super Bowl as 10th on the list. Also, it seems odd to me because it only shows the number of cases of beer sold. You have to keep in mind for Super Bowls many people go to bars to celebrate, so judging on cases bought doesn't seem to be all that accurate. Also, for many of the other holidays that were on the top they are more grill out type holidays where it would make sense to buy cases of beer. So in that case I think that it's odd that they make it seem like a big shock that the Super Bowl is number 10 on the list.
OK so now that we have the negative out of the way, there are a few things that this chart did positively. I can say that I liked how they laid out the information. It is organized in a nice way that is easy to read. It also only displays the information that is the most important and doesn't contain a bunch of extra clutter. Also, aside from the guy in the background holding a beer with a cheesy smile, the bright color is nice to attract attention.
All in all the quality of this graphic is just OK. I think it would be much better if it didn't include the Super Bowl as a "holiday," but that's just from my perspective. It is kind of an interesting thing to know but I wouldn't say it is one of most newsworthy things.
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Personally, I just find this graphic humorous. Not only is it a pointless factoid labeled as "newsworthy", there's just so many flaws in the information and layout, it borders on absolutely ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about considering the Super Bowl a holiday. I'm a football fan myself, and I've never looked at the Super Bowl as a holiday. I think you're right, comparing this with legitimate, national holidays is almost asinine.
I also had a bit of a problem with the title of the graph. "Super Bowl: Big-time beer holiday but not number 1". Alright, thanks for providing basically no information in the title of the chart. It doesn't tell you what ranking the Super Bowl fell into, nor does it tell you which holiday took the number one place. For such a lengthy title, it says virtually nothing.
The graphic also made me wonder about the validity of the information. Personally, I've always thought of St. Patrick's Day as a major beer drinking holiday, yet it didn't even make the cut. This makes me question the credibility of the information.
I agree that the information was organized in an appealing manner, and the colors were eye-catching. However, labeling such useless information as "newsworthy" is just simply asinine.
I completely agree with both of you on this graphic. It's ridiculous that it would be labeled 'newsworthy' in any way. As Katarina called it, 'factoid' seems the perfect word to describe it. It's nothing but a useless bit of information, that really should only matter to the competitive beer companies.
ReplyDeleteI also would not consider the Super Bowl a holiday. I think of holidays as religious observances or national landmarks, for me the Super Bowl does not fit into either of those categories. Plus, if city workers don't get a day off, it can't be holiday.
This was a really good graphic to choose for this assignment, it easily creates discussion. Good job!
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ReplyDeleteI really agree with your thoughts on this USA Today graph. I know it is USA Today’s technique to display statistics with cute and comical images. But the fact that they emphasis the Super Bowl, in a “holiday” based question is crossing the line. I think it takes away a little bit of a sources reliability when I find unfair comparison being highlighted in an article.
ReplyDeleteI agree when you discuss how the Super Bowl should not be compared to holidays’ like the 4th of July or Thanksgiving. Dictionary.com describes the term Holiday as, “a day fixed by law or custom on which ordinary business is suspended in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person.” If this newsworthy graph was properly titled, it would not classify or include the Super Bowl as a Holiday. If the graph wanted to illustrate the point that the Super Bowl was not the top alcohol consuming day, they could’ve figured a better title such as, Top Beer Drinking Day or Event. This chart could carry some worth by simply switching the word Holiday with Event.
The way the graph seems to organize its calculations is the next concern. The graph is calculated by the number of cases of beer sold. Another problem I have with the title they choose for this illustration. The title makes the graph sound credible, but the fact that none of the bar hoppers beer drinking totals are added in dramatically changes the reliability of how accurate this graph is. St. Patrick’s Day is one of the most bar celebrated holidays. The fact that it did not even make the list is maybe due to how they concluded the data for the chart. Also, is the graph only including 30 packs of beer sold? Or does it include all varieties of beer packages?
So, other than the bright smiling guy in the background of the graph, I don’t think I’d say this graph was organized well. The information presented is questionable and the fact that they introduce the title with ‘Holiday’ and present a category of the Super Bowl decreased the charts newsworthiness.
I also reported on this graph and, just the same, did not have very many positive thoughts in regard to it. The color was bright and I'm sure could draw in quite a bit of attention, but at the same time it seems as though there's so much that once you see it, it starts to just blend in.
ReplyDeleteThe news value of this is about as relevant to daily life as hearing that Danny Bonaduce is still in the spotlight somehow. It's not related to any kind of typical question that people are asking every single day. I completely agree with the issue of Super Bowl Sunday being considered a holiday. While it may be a tradition to drink beer and eat wings, it's not a holiday.
I also thought it was a good point to look at the relevance of people grilling out and buying beer in regard to the Super Bowl being in winter. Some people still may still be searching for bags of coal, but for those of us with no cold tolerance we will most likely be restricted to our indoor George Formans.
So while it is interesting to hear about, I'm not completely convinced that this chart is necessary. Quite frankly, had I gone on not knowing the statistics of cases of beer sold in regard to each "holiday", I can't imagine it would have changed much.