Research On Visual Rhetoric Of Xinhuanet's Data News In Public Crisis Communication

In modern society,various public crises occur frequently,from natural disasters such as the “SARS” epidemic in 2002 and the “Indian Ocean Tsunami” in 2004 to man-made disasters such as the “September 11 terrorist attacks” and the “Fukushima Nuclear Leak” in Japan.The safety of people's life and property has been seriously affected.Moreover,with the development of information technology and network technology,public crisis events spread through the Internet,affecting every member of the society,affecting the normal order and operating mechanism of the society.In the face of public crisis events,the news media need to undertake the important tasks of public crisis communication,to assist the government in preventing,handling,and eliminating public crises quickly and effectively.In recent years,data journalism has attracted much attention due to its data-based,visualized,and interactive features and advantages.It has also been used in public crisis communication,playing a unique role.Xinhuanet is one of the earliest media that started the practice of data journalism.Based on the concept of "using data to deliver unique news value",it uses visual rhetoric to innovate in data sorting,visual presentation,and interactive technology,creating a batch of high-quality data news works.At present,this column has broadcasted nearly thousands of Data News works.The quantity,quality,content coverage and diversification of the manuscripts,as well as the degree of specialization,are leading the way in similar media.Therefore,this article takes the “Data News” column of Xinhuanet,a leader in data journalism practice in our country's mainstream media,as the research object,and focuses on Xinhuanet's data news report on the Covid-19 global pandemic,a major public crisis event.In-depth research on the visual rhetoric characteristics of Xinhuanet Data News at the five micro-rhetoric levels of data,relationship,time,space,and interaction,and explore its visual rhetoric strategies.Moreover,the motivation behind the visual rhetoric of Xinhuanet's data news is revealed from three aspects: the innovation of the concept of public crisis management,the positioning of Xinhuanet's media role,and the shift of social public content demand.Finally,this research explores the application value of the visual rhetoric of Xinhuanet's data journalism in public crisis communication.