Unfolding the Decision-Making Dynamics of News Visualization Production in China

Abstract

News visualization is a journalistic form that centers on delivering information through data visualizations. It is arousing the interest of journalism professionals and scholars worldwide, including those in non-western societies. Limited studies have identified the challenges and opportunities of news visualization's adoption in non-western newsrooms, but the professionals' considerations and actions to deal with these challenges and seize the opportunities are unknown. This study explores the criteria for a valuable news visualization and how professionals balance the criteria and constraints to make news decisions in the newsrooms in China. A grounded analysis drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with professionals reveals the dynamics of source selection, interpretation, and presentation in news visualization production. It also shows that news visualization stories result from the debating and tradeoffs between the "western norms" and the organization's expectations, audiences' preferences, news commercialization, and macro environment in China.

The effect of interest and attitude on public comprehension of news with data visualization

“…The use of large amounts of data (big data) and its graphic visualization in the media proved to be very relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, since the public needed to understand news about science, health and technology. The media became the center for daily monitoring information, but also for the publication of warnings and guidelines for action (Bao et al, 2020), which demonstrates the capabilities, opportunities, and challenges of this field, which has still been little studied (Ma, 2021). This paper focuses on analyzing whether there are differences between the impact of reading traditional news and news with data visualization.…”

“…It can not only express news content intuitively, but also highlight key points through elements such as icons and colors to help audiences get key information in the news (Burmester et al, 2010). In recent years, the use of data visualization in the news has grown rapidly given its effectiveness in facilitating the understanding of content that is difficult to interpret thanks to the fact that the data can be analyzed visually, with increasing interactivity (Liu, 2021;Ma, 2021).…”