More than ever, charts are part of the news. Since we spend most of our idle moments with our faces in front of screens, charts are an effective way for news outlets to keep us from looking away (what publishers more optimistically refer to as engagement). They’re a great Twitter cheat, too, since a picture is worth far more than 140, or even 10,000, characters. I like to think charts also serve a higher purpose by enabling people to understand complex ideas and see old ideas in new ways. Visualization is powerful.