What ‘Work’ Can Dataviz Do in Popular Science Communication?

Martin Engebretsen

2020

Abstract

Data visualizations have proliferated on public arenas for information and communication – in journalism, PR and governmental information as well as in popular science communication (PSC). In the existing literature on PSC, simplicity, relevance and trust are identified as critical factors for the communication to succeed. This position paper argue that data visualizations represent a semiotic resource with unique potentials regarding all of these criteria. The paper aims at presenting a theoretical and methodological framework for studying data visualizations applied in popular science discourses. The main goals are a) to introduce social semiotics as an advanced analytical tool for the scrutiny of data visualizations, b) to introduce PUS (Public understanding of science) as a field relevant for empirical studies of data visualization, and c) to present a method of analysis combining a small scale corpus analysis with multimodal close reading of selected visualizations.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Engebretsen M. (2020). What ‘Work’ Can Dataviz Do in Popular Science Communication?. In Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2020) - Volume 3: IVAPP; ISBN 978-989-758-402-2, SciTePress, pages 260-264. DOI: 10.5220/0009094002600264

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ivapp20,
author={Martin Engebretsen},
title={What ‘Work’ Can Dataviz Do in Popular Science Communication?},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2020) - Volume 3: IVAPP},
year={2020},
pages={260-264},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0009094002600264},
isbn={978-989-758-402-2},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (VISIGRAPP 2020) - Volume 3: IVAPP
TI - What ‘Work’ Can Dataviz Do in Popular Science Communication?
SN - 978-989-758-402-2
AU - Engebretsen M.
PY - 2020
SP - 260
EP - 264
DO - 10.5220/0009094002600264
PB - SciTePress