This weekend Barack Obama’s campaign broke a campaign finance record raising a record 150 million dollars in September. Following up on that theme, this post will set aim on examining CNN’s Fundraising digital map and the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) Fundraising map. The primary goal of this post will be to compare and look at the available content and the means of displaying the same data differently as well as focusing on each maps supporting content.

The FEC website Presidential Campaign Finance Map is fairly simplistic. A menu on the left allows the user to compare the candidates by millions of dollars raised. Clicking of a candidate resets the map in the center to display a graduated circle style of map entailing circles of various sizes with larger circles indicating larger dollar donation sums broken up by states. Hovering over a circular area gives the total dollar amount that was donated or raised. Clicking on the circle delves deeper indicating the location of specific contributions based on zip code. On the right hand side is a further breakdown of the fundraising efforts and where different sources of money came from. Below the base map are searchable fields where the user can look for a particular contributor and clickable menus that allow the user to delve into the specific data.


financefec.png

Using graduated circles as a means to display dollar differential is an interesting way to depict this data and I believe provides a good visualization aid that allows the user to discern quickly how much money has been donated and where. The drill down maps are nicely styled to provide an additional layer of detail. The additional menus and optional data drill downs provide a very smooth and easy user interface to discern and examine this data.

On the other side of the coin is the CNN Fundraising map which is based off of the FEC data mentioned above. The CNN fundraising maps use a coropleth map style, the use of different colors to represent ranges of dollar values. At the top of the map are three buttons, Obama,McCain or Both that controls the presentation of data. On the right is a summation of total dollars raised by both candidates. Similar to the FEC map hovering over a state gives the dollar amount raised in that state. The map allows you to click or select a state and get a county level breakdown of fundraising based on candidate.


financecnn.png

Overall the CNN map blurs the boxes into the map unlike the map on the FEC website. Both maps provide similar data. The really interesting comparison of these maps is in the choice of thematic mapping styles that have been chosen to represent the data. I personally think the coropleth looks less cluttered, but the FEC map’s use of graduated circles provides a good way to see the overall distributional differences in campaign fundraising.

Where the CNN Fundraising map really shines is in the additional content. At the bottom of the map, the user can take an historical look at the fundraising efforts through a slider that can be adjusted for earlier periods during the election. As well, the CNN mapping site contains additional charts and graphs that provide a much more appealing breakdown of the fundraising efforts of each candidate.

I think it is really great to see two different thematic mapping representations of the same data and two different digital layout approaches used with the same data. Both maps and accompanying sites are extremely well thought out and put together. If you want good examples of how to create online digital mapping content that tells a story and delivers a message and has digital cartography that provides meaningful and useful information, these two sites would be my prime examples. As I have said in previous postings please feel free to leave me your thoughts or interpretations in the comments, and please check back as I will be adding additional content to this series soon. Next posting I will be focusing on campaign advertising maps so check back soon.