The diplomat and the peacock
Visualizing tweeting journalists in Switzerland
Geoinformation specialist Ralph Straumann (@ralphstraumann) has used a 300-strong crowdsourced list of tweeting journalists in Switzerland to create an interesting visual representation of their influence and relationships.
You can read his full post here. If you don’t speak German, the first graphic essentially shows the various networks of journalists as represented by their connections among each other. The size of the name is determined by the number of other journalists in the network who follow them. Straumann has used different colors to represent different clusters of journalists who are more closely linked to each other than to the rest of the list. He suggests that the dark blue group on the right are likely to be journalists from Germany, as they are slightly apart from the main network.
The second graphic shows the journalists’ influence among the general public. This is measured by the number of followers in general, not just the number of followers also on the list. Here the prominence is slightly different, boosting Straumann’s claim that the dark blue group are likely to be German because they have a larger number of general followers – Germany providing a bigger pool of potential followers than Switzerland.
What I find interesting is that most of the foreign newswire journalists (e.g. @katharinabart, @ethomasson, myself) are clustered together in the top right of the graphic, in the yellow group. I would be curious to know what the yellow group represents (focus national political and economic news about Switzerland?) and why we’re not well connected with any of the other groups. Any ideas?
Spaceship on the lake
UN per diem in Geneva
Here’s a figure I’ll throw out for you to mull over: the United Nations gives people who come to Geneva for conferences and other meetings a flat rate ‘per diem’ of $361 per day.
Defamation of religions
Pakistan, on behalf of the OIC, has introduced a resolution in the U.N. Human Rights Council to condemn defamation of religions. It’s not the first time. Almost exactly a year ago the OIC successfully introduced a very similar resolution. Here’s what I wrote at the time: UN body OKs call to curb religious criticism
London Mews
France vs. Romandie
Some expressions in French, and their equivalents in the French-speaking Swiss region known as the ‘Romandie’
bonjour = adieu
hésiter = être sur le ballant
être enceinte = avoir le ballon
faire une bise = donner un bec
heurte quelqu’un = biller dans quelqu’un
tout va vien = rien que de bon
il y a un incendie = il brûle
le père Noël = le père Chalande
en désordre = en cheni
moi-même = mé-col
de toute façon = comme que comme
sur le derrière = cul-plat
poser une question = demander une question
en plein midi = en plein dian
nom de Dieu = nom de d’zou
c’est incroyable = c’est épuvantable
excusez-moi = faites-excuse
c’est drôle = c’est parce
en France = sur France
une goutte d’alcool = une giclée d’alcool
peut-être = par hasard
le soleil = le Jean Rosset
sortir = aller loin
faire du tapage = mener le diable
abattu = tout moindre
deux fois plus = la moitié plus
dormir = faire nô-nô
une baguette = un pain parisien
comme = quoi pour
manger seul = faire le Suisse
ça va = ca veut
(thanks to Jean, who taught me a little bit of Swiss French)
Longing
Autumn in the mountains
Back at the grindstone
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About
Musings of a wire reporter in Berlin. Feel free to contact me with your questions about journalism, Germany, or anything else I write about on this blog.
