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COMM 361: Entrepreneurial Journalism

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SimplyAnalytics can generate ways of viewing data other than the Map view, including a variety of data tables and charts. Below you will find information about some commonly used View types.

All Views available in our SimplyAnalytics subscription can be browsed by clicking on the New View + button in the database. A list of already-generated views appears below that button, allowing you to toggle through the automatically generated views as well as any you create.

Related Data Table

Related Data Tables are particularly useful when looking at data from MRI-Simmons, including the Market Segments data and data from consumer behavior surveys. This is because they should you the values for all related variables for a given location.

For example, if you chose the variable % MEDIA | INTERNET | ACTIVITIES DONE IN THE LAST 30 DAYS | OBTAINED THE LATEST NEWS/CURRENT EVENTS, it would show you what percentage of households in the location(s) you choose used the Internet for not just that purpose, but for any of the other possible responses to the same question. These include activities like "obtained sports news/information," "looked for recipes," and "watched a movie online."

To generate a Related Data Table:

  1. Make sure you've added the variable you want to look at related data for to the project
  2. Click on New View +
  3. Find Related Data Table and click Create
  4. Select the Location(s) you want to appear in the table
  5. Select the Data you want the table to be based on
  6. Click Done

Once you've generated the table, you can either sort it by variable name or the values for one location.

Tip: Adding multiple locations allow you to compare consumer behavior or the prominence of market segments across them. You can add additional locations after generating the table by clicking on the Locations tab and adding a new location to the project or choosing one of your favorited locations

Ranking Table

Ranking Tables take smaller geographic units (such as ZIP codes) in a larger geographic unit (such as a county) and rank them based on the value of a specified variable.

For example, if you wanted a table ranking the ZIP codes in Centre County by median household income, you would:

  1. Make sure median household income has already been added to your project
  2. Click on New View +
  3. Find Ranking Table and click on Create
  4. Select the larger location (Centre County in this case) within which you want to rank the smaller locations
  5. Select Median Household Income under data
  6. Click Done
  7. Change Top 100 Cities in Centre County sorted by Location Name to Top 100 Zip Codes in Centre County sorted by Median Household Income

Location Query

Location Queries are a tool to identify locations that match specific criteria. For example, you could use a location query to look for Zip Codes with a median household income over a certain amount where at least 50% of households have used the internet to obtain information on news and/or current events.

To generate a Location Query:

  1. Make sure the variables and locations you want to use have already been added to your project
  2. Click on New View +
  3. Find Location Query and click Create
  4. At the top of the page, select the type of geographic unit you're looking for (city, ZIP Code, etc.) and the overall location you're interested in
  5. Select the first variable and specify your criteria
  6. Select the second variable and specify your criteria
  7. Click Search
Tip: You can include additional variables as well; however, the more criteria you add, the fewer locations will match. Try playing around with adding and removing criteria to see what happens