From Decoding a Graph to Processing a Multimodal Message: Interacting with data visualisation in the news media

Data visualisation – in the forms of graphs, charts, and maps – represents a text type growing in prevalence and impact in many cultural domains; education, journalism, business, PR, and more. Research on data visualisation reception is scarce, particularly that related to interactive and dynamic forms of data visualisation in digital media. Taking an approach inspired by grounded theory, in this article I investigate the ways in which young students interact with data visualisations found in digital news media. Combining observations from reading sessions with ten in-depth interviews, I investigate how the informants read, interpreted, and responded emotionally to data visualisations including visual metaphors, interactivity, and animation.