#WARONDRUGS: Exemplifying the Digital Divide

Mary Emma BartonTrinity College: Data Driven Cultures

Spring 2016

The Lost Generation

• 1971: President Nixon declares the War on Drugs• Politicians enact a slew of ‘tough

on crime’ policies

• Today: Over 1.5 million Americans imprisoned• Most incarcerated persons

belong to a minority, are poor, or both

Language M

atters • One in six Hispanic men will face jail time at some point during their lives, yet only one percent of tweets are in Spanish

EN93%

OTHER4%

IT2%

ES1%

#WARONDRUGS: Tweets by Language

EN OTHER IT

ES

Revealing Rhetoric

• The terms on the word cloud indicate a younger generation of ‘tweeters’ in favor of liberal criminal justice reform

#WARONDRUGS: Visualizing the Text

The Smartphone SocietyNicole Ashcoff

• On the global scale, the production of smartphones perpetuates the digital divide

• As these phones are imported to the United States, the divide continues

Public Enemy No. 1“America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.” –President Richard Nixon