Abstract
The past two decades have witnessed an increased awareness of the power of information visualization to bring attention to relevant issues and to inform audiences. However, the mirror image of that awareness, the study of how graphs, charts, maps, and diagrams can be used to deceive, has remained within the boundaries of academic circles in statistics, cartography, and computer science. Visual journalists and information graphics designers—who we will call evidence-driven visual communicators—have been mostly absent of this debate. This has led to disastrous results in many cases, as those professions are—even in an era of shrinking news media companies—the main intermediaries between the complexity of the world and citizens of democratic nations. This present essay explains the scope of the problem and proposes tweaks in educational programs to overcome it.
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Notes
- 1.
I will be using the words “information graphics,” “infographics,” and “visualization” with the same meaning: Any visual representation based on graphs, charts, maps, diagrams, and pictorial illustrations designed to inform an audience, or to let that same audience explore data at will. I know that this decision will displease some scholars and practitioners, but I have my reasons. For more details (see Cairo 2012a, the Introduction in particular).
- 2.
See WTF Visualizations, URL, January 8, 2014: http://wtfviz.net/.
- 3.
For a sample of ethics codes: see, URLs, January 8, 2013:
- 4.
See Authors Advocate Government Subsidies for Journalism, URL, January 8, 2014: http://www.fordham.edu/Campus_Resources/eNewsroom/topstories_1771.asp.
- 5.
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Cairo, A. (2015). Graphics Lies, Misleading Visuals. In: Bihanic, D. (eds) New Challenges for Data Design. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6596-5_5
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