Tomsk, Russian Federation
During the COVID-19 pandemics, numerous data trackers presented relevant information on morbidity and mortality rates. Journalists combined their own calculations with official data from Rosstat, Rospotrebnadzor, US Department of Health and Human Services, US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Australian Bureau of Statistics, CovidLive, Johns Hopkins University, etc. As a result, COVID-19 data trackers acquired a certain suggestive potential and developed additional meanings. Despite the official factual basis, they contained metaphors and lexical units with a negative emotional connotation, accentuated by title typography. The interactive data visualization contained color-highlighted graphic metaphors and other graphic elements. As the key element of data tracking, data visualization is a continuous message that has no end in time: it’s development is unpredictable for the journalist since it depends on the incoming data. Ideally, this message is supposed to be updated as the new data keep coming. However, the journalists that published COVID-19 data trackers directed their readers’ attention to certain indicators, thus transferring unbiased facts to the axiological field.
data journalism, COVID-19, data tracker, data visualization, continuous message, suggestion, semiotic
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