AOW 1/30: POTUS Match

This week's visual comes from the ABC News site OTUS, a part of ABC News' website that has full in depth coverage and analysis about the Republican Primaries and the General Election in November. This interactive section of OTUS is called the "Match o Matic." The purpose of the site is to show the various political views of the candidates, and President Obama's as well, and have people select the candidate that best matches their political views. The site is delivered by organizing the selections by topics including key topics in the presidential primaries: abortion, gay marriage, global warming, and immigration. It is written for the voting population who may not divulge themselves in political news. The diction of the choices are equivalent to the views of the political candidates. It also has some of the same words and phrases they have said before, for example: Michelle Bachmann proposing to build a double-walled fence on the US-Mexican Border. The views are also distinctively different because each of the candidates may have different views on certain issues. The site also presents the information in random orders to prevent people from picking the selection in the same spots to insure their suggestion will match the candidate they want based on their prior knowledge. When one completes the survey, the site will use an algorithm and count the number of shared views and produce your top three candidates. Above the cartoon pictures of the candidates is a chart with shaded in boxes that show which issues that match your candidates. If one is to scroll over the issues, it will show what your candidate's stance is and how is compares to yours. This delivery and arrangement helps supports its purpose not only because they show which candidate would reflect your political views, but also educates the American voter on the candidates that are running. This web application is very effective because it is simple to use and educates and helps the users and voters on their voting decisions for the Republican Primary and the General Election.