ABSTRACT
Although as a graphics reporter you may not find yourself in
ethical dilemmas as regularly as other journalists, there are some
common scenarios that pop up from time to time. The first of these
is the tendency to be faced with incomplete data and the tempta-
tion to “fill in the blanks” in order to complete your graphic. When
information is incomplete or seems to be misleading, you must
make every effort to find the missing links through more research
and fact-finding. Often, you can consult the original source(s) of the
data and, by asking a few more questions, fill in the missing pieces
of the puzzle. If this doesn’t work, there are often ways to present
the information you do have in a way that provides the reader with
a bit more detail, while at the same time, makes it clear that there, in
fact, are some missing numbers. For example, when you don’t have
all of the numbers for a bar, pie or fever chart, you could present the
numbers you do have in the form of a “by the numbers” box that
lists each figure and gives a simple explanation of what it represents.
In this case, the worst thing you can do is try to pass off the numbers
you do have as a complete set of data when they aren’t. Finally, you
may sometimes have to scrap the graphic until you can get the
