| In this paper,quantitative and qualitative methods are used to study the visualization of daily data journalism in "The Upshot" section of The New York Times,and analyzes the visualization production strategies and professional standards from the perspective of news routines.The production strategies include visual presentation strategies,interaction strategies and technology application strategies;professional standards include objective standards,transparency standards and clarity standards.In the aspect of visual presentation,this paper finds that the daily data journalism production of "The Upshot" shows some preferences,and emphatically analyzes the presentation strategies of timeline and map.In the "The Upshot"section,the data journalism visualization prefers to use common and simple charts,and specific topics prefer to use specific types.The colorway is simple and follows the conventional rules.Timeline and map are the two main strategies for time and spatial narrative in the data journalism visualization of the "The Upshot" section.Time is usually used as the horizontal axis or the third variable in the chart,corresponding to two forms of static and dynamic,among which the line chart has become a conventional means of comparing diachronic data.Timeline data forms trends,which can be changed or even hidden by choice of time span and granularity.Marking outliers at time points is a common way to enhance news value,including recent time points and past time points.The former emphasizes novelty,while the latter links the past with the present.Maps make space itself news,which improves the priority of geographical location.Maps strengthen the connection and highlight the proximity of news.Maps reflect the influence of some data on the whole society and humanistic care.It has become a common practice to use authoritative and plain maps,and colorway is also a common rhetorical technique in maps.In the aspect of interaction design,according to the four interactive operation modes from simple to complex,this paper puts forward the interactive functions of "The Upshot" data journalism visualizations:tooltips or highlights,rolling presentation,data exploration and personal data presentation,and analyzes the procedural rhetoric skills.Tool-tips or highlighting when the mouse hovers are common way of interaction,which often contains the procedural rhetoric skills of"default view".Rolling realizes the linear reading under the guidance of images,which leads to the illusion of interaction,and frames the user's thinking through the procedural rhetoric of "fixed order".Exploring the interaction of data can be divided into two types:data interpretation programs and visual databases,which are rhetorical by "fixed comparison" and "filtering".This kind of interaction may attach importance to the correlation of data,ignoring the causality,and should reflect the depth and temperature of the report by combining individual stories,news scenes and reasons.The interaction of personal data presentation allows users to input or select personal data,provides personalized results,and realizes the connection between macro and micro perspectives.It is a way for data journalism to pay attention to individuals in data and embody humanistic concepts However,this kind of interaction may just be a procedural rhetoric skill of "information input and feedback".To abstract complex reality and individual by mechanical procedure may make it difficult to take into account individual needs,and even mislead users,and humanistic care is still lacking in essence.In the aspect of technology application,this paper makes statistics on the production technology of "The Upshot" data journalism visualization,which can be divided into three categories:the first category is AI&HTML,the second category is highly encapsulated visualization tools,and the third category is using original code,professional map tools or visualization library D3.The first two categories can be regarded as no-code tools,lowering the threshold of technology,while the third category not only ensures the personalization and richness of production,but also improves efficiency.The application of template files and agile mode saves the time of visualization production.However,there are also problems in the application of visualization technology.Templates in visualization tools may ignore the professionalism of journalism.Data reporters need to exert subjective initiative in design,respect facts and care for people,and avoid blind use and over-reliance on data and tools.In the case of using a large number of native code and algorithms,the gatekeeper's power is also transferred in the cooperation between journalists and developers.Data reporters should understand the principles of data and procedures,and run through humanistic concepts and social responsibilities in technical application.In the aspect of objectivity,this paper analyzes the unconventional design,annotation and data integrity statements of data journalism visualization in "The Upshot" section.According to the case analysis,it is considered that the unconventional design may distort the data,and it is found that there are two problems:the coordinate axis does not start from zero,and the scale of axes is not evenly divided.In 50.9%of visualizations,texts are used to summarize data rules and key points in the title or under the title,or to point out anomalies in images,which may imply opinions.Data integrity is a part of data context,and the statements of data integrity in "The Upshot" section has not formed a routine.Declaring the integrity of data and clarifying the selective use of data can enhance the objectivity of operation.In the aspect of transparency,this paper analyzes the disclosure of data sources,the explanation of data analysis methods and other ways to improve transparency of data journalism visualization in "The Upshot" section.It has become a routine to disclose data sources,but less than 30%of them are clearly explained,and nearly half of them are vague.The ideal data source disclosure should provide both data source links and downloadable documents.Data analysis methods affect the visualization effect,but only a few have given explanations of data analysis methods,with different levels of detail,without forming a routine.The more complicated the data analysis is,the more method explanation should be given,but it is difficult to realize due to the fast pace of daily news production.In addition,platforms and tools such as "NYTOpen" blog,GitHub and Jupyter Notebook,to some extent,contribute to the transparency of this section.In the aspect of clarity,this paper analyzes the visual representation,text description and information complexity of the data journalism visualization in"The Upshot" section.Expressiveness of visual channels was investigated from four aspects:accuracy,distinguishability,separability and visual prominence,and individual cases which were not standardized were found respectively.Text descriptions often provided by data journalism visualization,including descriptions of visual reading methods,descriptions of data scope or meaning.The text description in the visualization can improve the clarity through multi-modal complementation.The information complexity of visualization is quantified by the sum of the number of variables and colors,and it is found that the information complexity is conventional,and nearly 90%of the complexity is moderate.To sum up,this paper analyzes the production strategies of data journalism visualizations in "The Upshot" section of The New York Times from three aspects:visual presentation,interactive design and technical application,and finds that some routines play an important role in data journalism production.This paper investigates the professional standards from three aspects:objectivity,transparency and clarity,and holds that the data journalism visualization in "The Upshot" section follows certain professional standards,but there are still unprofessional cases,and detailed and unified professional standards have not yet been formed. |
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