In this article we survey the historical background and development of information and data visualization, and an overview of the intersection of data visualization with storytelling applied to the field of data journalism, where it finds its most widespread use in narrative visualizations. We start by explaining why the mere act of visualization can be highly useful to readers, helping them discover patterns and comprehend information. Backed by historical references, we will describe how some of the first data visualizations were used to explain facts, understand certain events, and determine courses of action. We will then outline how storytelling and narrative techniques are being currently used with data visualization to leverage the power of visual expression. Our goal is to characterize storytelling with data as a vibrant and interesting field that current journalism practices employ to help readers understand and form opinions on complex facts. By presenting concepts like storytelling with data and data stories, we aim to spark interest in further research in the applications of data visualization and narrative.

In this paper, we present the tools of the MediaViz project, a work-in progress platform that aims to provide researchers, academics and professionals from the media field with a set of analytical and exploratory resources to answer high level and complex questions about the online media panorama, in an efficient, visual and interactive way. Our approach consists of aggregating and processing news data from multiple online sources, and provide programatic access to it through an Application Programming Interface (API). The visualization tools leverage the data provided by the API, allowing users to interact, explore and interrogate that information. Through the use of data visualization techniques, we aim to characterize the publication patterns of multiple online news sources by analyzing and comparing distinct dimensions. Dimensions of interest include the frequency and flow of publications and social shares throughout time, and the geographic coverage of online news outlets. We present some of the developed visualization tools and describe how they can offer meaningful insights by providing a bird's-eye view of distinct characteristics of the online mediascape.

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