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I found this article difficult to understand. Though I was able to eventually follow along with the theme, perhaps a quick explainer of what a "beat" is? Hint:
by ultimoo 5y ago
I found this article difficult to understand. Though I was able to eventually follow along with the theme, perhaps a quick explainer of what a "beat" is? Hint: in police terminology, a beat is the territory that a police officer patrols.
If you're not up to speed on the jargon, parsing graph titles like "Police beat resident population" become confusing (are we talking assault?).
Also, a summary of the findings and assertions at the beginning would have been helpful.
/rant
- Karrot_Kream 5y agoThe problem with highly-charged reporting like this is that anything other than carefully justified claims and technical jargon will immediately bring a torrent of complaints. Each group that has a conclusion without looking at the data will try to poke any hole in any aspect of the argument and staying dry and technical helps stave off this sort of criticism.
- ultimoo 5y agoThat's an interesting take and I hadn't considered how the subject matter is such that staying clear of summaries is the best recourse -- thanks. But perhaps there is a way to add the very TL;DR that would have been near the bottom of the article at the top. I usually have no trouble skimming and digesting the reporting on wsj and nyt.
- Karrot_Kream 5y agoI agree. Alternatively a glossary at the bottom with links would be nice to help readers without the jargon knowledge.