Whatever your perspective on the great American healthcare debate, it's undeniable that the discussion has spawned some interesting presentations of people's various viewpoints. The two that stood out to me were "Healthcare Napkins All" by Dan Roam and C. Anthony Jones and this animated video I found on YouTube called, "Health Care Reform Thought Bubble." While one was SlideShare's first prize in The Best Presentation 2009 contest, the other is just one person's perspective explained on the issue using motion design from Thought Bubble. I don't necessarily agree with everything in either of the pieces, but I think it's awesome that digital media has given us the platform to create and share visual "explanations" like these.
No doubt healthcare (and its possible reform) is an incendiary topic. After all, we're not just talking about an intangible, abstract policy, we're talking about people's health and their ability to access medical care. It's a touchy subject (if you were in doubt, just read some of the comments on ReadWriteWeb's post about the presentation created by Roam and Jones). However, when we have visual aids such as these two videos--and many others--at our disposal, I think we have an opportunity to inform ourselves and at least understand the basics of very complex issues (reminds me of my post about Jeff Jarvis' "Credit Crisis" video).
What do you think of the way these two groups of people expressed their opinions about healthcare? What could they have done better? Is anything lost by creating presentations and videos like these?
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