After countless hours of mind-boggling, unbelievably frustrating Internet and library searches – I finally located the population statistics for Grahamstown, East London, Bloemfontein, and Johannesburg! (Waits for thunderous applause) Turns out, they were on Statistics South Africa (see my favourite links) the whole time. The key, in the end, was to dig and burrow deep into the site’s sinister web of “freely-accessible” government information. For a while I felt as if I were traipsing through a desert, looking for any sign of life, a spring of hope among the arid land of population statistics. But, the effort proved fruitful and I am satisfied …
Locating the information for this assignment, as you may have gathered by now, was the most challenging aspect of the practical exercise and 90% of the battle. The crime statistics were relatively simple to locate. The South African Police Service website (see my favourite links) was straightforward and accessible, and the information easy to download. The one aspect that may hinder citizens from accessing the crime statistics is that they are only available in a downloadable .pdf format. This may prove problematic to users who do not have access to .pdf readers such as Adobe Reader on their computers.
The population statistics were eventually located on Statistics South Africa. The site was not easily accessible and the information difficult to come by. When the statistics were eventually located, they were only available in Excel format, which again proves problematic for citizens who do not have Microsoft Excel, or similar programmes, on their computers. The second problem that arose was that the names of the cities were not given, instead their respective codes were used, e.g. EC101. Having located the statistics, I then had to locate the municipality code lists and then find the cities I needed. The names of the cities are also recorded differently and for someone who is not familiar with the name changes this may pose yet another challenge. For example, Grahamstown is listed as Makana, East London as Buffalo City and Bloemfontein as Magaung. See what I mean by tangled web? It is also essential to note that the latest population statistics available are from the 2001 census. This does pose a problem to our data results, as we are comparing 2006 crime statistics with population statistics recorded five years earlier.
Recording the data in Microsoft Excel was like a breath of fresh air. With the skills I had already acquired from a previous lecture, it was simply a matter of recording the numbers accurately and double-checking them. From the graphs, I was shocked to find that with regard to rape, murder, assault with intent, and malicious damage to property, Grahamstown (yes, the town that I currently call my home!) is the most dangerous city per capita. This is a potentially viable story idea.
Using spreadsheets for statistical analysis is a useful tool for making sense of endless reams of data provided by government and municipal officials. Story ideas may very well be embedded within these pages of seemingly senseless information. The results of my analysis have shown that there is a promising story idea already lurking – why is Grahamstown’s crime rate so high?
Not always easy to access, and not always easy to understand, one may go so far as to question the apparent transparency of our government with regard to facts and figures. There is, evidently a need for a simple and easy means by which to access and understand online data and South Africa has a long way to go.
Locating the information for this assignment, as you may have gathered by now, was the most challenging aspect of the practical exercise and 90% of the battle. The crime statistics were relatively simple to locate. The South African Police Service website (see my favourite links) was straightforward and accessible, and the information easy to download. The one aspect that may hinder citizens from accessing the crime statistics is that they are only available in a downloadable .pdf format. This may prove problematic to users who do not have access to .pdf readers such as Adobe Reader on their computers.
The population statistics were eventually located on Statistics South Africa. The site was not easily accessible and the information difficult to come by. When the statistics were eventually located, they were only available in Excel format, which again proves problematic for citizens who do not have Microsoft Excel, or similar programmes, on their computers. The second problem that arose was that the names of the cities were not given, instead their respective codes were used, e.g. EC101. Having located the statistics, I then had to locate the municipality code lists and then find the cities I needed. The names of the cities are also recorded differently and for someone who is not familiar with the name changes this may pose yet another challenge. For example, Grahamstown is listed as Makana, East London as Buffalo City and Bloemfontein as Magaung. See what I mean by tangled web? It is also essential to note that the latest population statistics available are from the 2001 census. This does pose a problem to our data results, as we are comparing 2006 crime statistics with population statistics recorded five years earlier.
Recording the data in Microsoft Excel was like a breath of fresh air. With the skills I had already acquired from a previous lecture, it was simply a matter of recording the numbers accurately and double-checking them. From the graphs, I was shocked to find that with regard to rape, murder, assault with intent, and malicious damage to property, Grahamstown (yes, the town that I currently call my home!) is the most dangerous city per capita. This is a potentially viable story idea.
Using spreadsheets for statistical analysis is a useful tool for making sense of endless reams of data provided by government and municipal officials. Story ideas may very well be embedded within these pages of seemingly senseless information. The results of my analysis have shown that there is a promising story idea already lurking – why is Grahamstown’s crime rate so high?
Not always easy to access, and not always easy to understand, one may go so far as to question the apparent transparency of our government with regard to facts and figures. There is, evidently a need for a simple and easy means by which to access and understand online data and South Africa has a long way to go.
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