IEEE VIS 2024 Content: More Than Data Stories: Broadening the Role of Visualization in Contemporary Journalism

More Than Data Stories: Broadening the Role of Visualization in Contemporary Journalism

Yu Fu -

John Stasko -

Room: Bayshore II

2024-10-17T17:45:00Z GMT-0600 Change your timezone on the schedule page
2024-10-17T17:45:00Z
Exemplar figure, described by caption below
This diagram highlights the intersection of journalism and visualization, focusing on Six Roles of Computing in Journalism: Facilitator, Analyzer, Communicator, Public Forum, Automator, and Auditor. It outlines key transformations in journalism, like interactive and personalized news, and explores computational practices such as data journalism and computer-assisted reporting. The diagram also proposes seven research topics to advance visualization's role in journalism, including combating misinformation and supporting analytical tasks. The aim is to contextualize visualization's value in addressing emerging challenges and enhancing journalistic practices.
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Keywords

Computational journalism,data visualization,data-driven storytelling, journalism

Abstract

Data visualization and journalism are deeply connected. From early infographics to recent data-driven storytelling, visualization has become an integrated part of contemporary journalism, primarily as a communication artifact to inform the general public. Data journalism, harnessing the power of data visualization, has emerged as a bridge between the growing volume of data and our society. Visualization research that centers around data storytelling has sought to understand and facilitate such journalistic endeavors. However, a recent metamorphosis in journalism has brought broader challenges and opportunities that extend beyond mere communication of data. We present this article to enhance our understanding of such transformations and thus broaden visualization research's scope and practical contribution to this evolving field. We first survey recent significant shifts, emerging challenges, and computational practices in journalism. We then summarize six roles of computing in journalism and their implications. Based on these implications, we provide propositions for visualization research concerning each role. Ultimately, by mapping the roles and propositions onto a proposed ecological model and contextualizing existing visualization research, we surface seven general topics and a series of research agendas that can guide future visualization research at this intersection.