This paper argues that visualisation conventions work to make the data represented within visualisations seem objective, that is, transparent and factual. Interrogating the work that visualisation conventions do helps us to make sense of the apparent contradiction between criticisms of visualisations as doing persuasive work and visualisation designers' belief that through visualisation, it is possible to 'do good with data' (Periscopic, 2014). We focus on four conventions which imbue visualisations with a sense of objectivity, transparency and facticity. These include: a) two-dimensional viewpoints; b) clean layouts; c) geometric shapes and lines; d) the inclusion of data sources. We argue that thinking about visualisations from a social semiotic standpoint, as we do in this paper by bringing together what visualisation designers say about their intentions with a semiotic analysis of the visualisations they produce, advances understanding of the ways that data visualisations come into being, how they are imbued with particular qualities and how power operates in and through them. Thus this paper contributes nuanced understanding of data visualisations and their production, by uncovering the ways in which power is at work within them. In turn, it advances debate about data in society and the emerging field of data studies.

This study examined facilitators and barriers to effective patient and caregiver communication with providers with emphasis on communication related to cancer pain management. Focus groups and personal interviews were conducted with cancer patients and family caregivers of patients. Communication experiences of subjects as well as suggestions for ways to improve the communication process were elicited. Twenty-two cancer patients and 16 family caregivers participated in the study. Seven themes emerged suggesting improvements that are needed in the communication process. These include: 1) improving the process of information exchange, 2) increasing active participation of patient and caregiver in the care process, 3) improving provider relationship-building skills, 4) overcoming time barriers, 5) addressing fears regarding use of pain management medications, 6) fostering appropriate involvement of family and caregivers in the communication process, and 7) improving coordination of care among providers. Specific suggestions and their practice implications for health care providers are highlighted.

Public opposition to immigration in Britain reflects perceptions of immigrants that focus disproportionately on “illegal” immigration and asylum seekers, rather than more numerous workers, students, and family members. This study examines coverage of immigration in the British national press, to see whether press portrayals of migrants provide a basis for these images of immigration underlying public attitudes. We use corpus linguistic methods to analyze 43 million words of news from 2010 to 2012. Among other findings, we show that press portrayals match public perceptions of migrants, with “illegal immigrants” and “failed asylum seekers” as predominant depictions in broadsheet and tabloid newspapers.

The goal of this study was to determine how family functioning influences the onset of adolescent cigarette smoking and how family functioning and parental smoking together influence adolescent smoking. A 6-year prospective design was used to follow a group of 508 families with a child aged 11-13 years. Predictor measures were parents' smoking status at Time 1, parents' scores on scales measuring family cohesion and parent-adolescent strain, and adolescents' scores on 3 scales measuring psychological adjustment. Results showed that poorer family functioning predicted subsequent adolescent smoking, independent of other measured factors. The strongest predictions were yielded by the combination of low family cohesion and parental smoking, with early adolescents who had a parent who smoked and low family cohesion reporting more than twice the rate of smoking in late adolescence.Almost all adult smokers begin to smoke before age 20, and the earlier in life they begin to smoke, the more likely they will be a heavy smoker for life and experience earlier mortality (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1987). Conversely, people who do not initiate regular smoking during their teen years rarely become smokers as adults. Beyond the effects of smoking on physical health, early use of cigarettes may predispose adolescents to engage in illegal drug use and other problem behaviors (Newcomb & Bentler, 1989). For these reasons, an understanding of the factors that lead adolescents to take up cigarette use is an important research priority for the United States' health care. This article presents prospective data showing the influence of family functioning in early adolescence on smoking status in late adolescence.A variety of studies have reported that parents' smoking status and attitudes toward smoking influence the likelihood that their children will become smokers (U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, 1979). Parents

As data become more and more ubiquitous, so too do data visualizations, which increasingly circulate online and are an important means through which non-experts get access to data. This paper addresses the factors that affect how people engage with data visualizations, a relatively underresearched focus in visualization research to date. Drawing on qualitative, empirical research with users, we identify six factors that affect engagement: subject matter; source/media location; beliefs and opinions; time; emotions; and confidence and skills. In drawing attention to these factors, we bring HCI concerns together with approaches to media audience research, to identify new themes for visualization research. In particular, we argue that our findings have implications for how effectiveness is conceived and defined in relation to data visualizations and how this varies depending on how, by whom, where and for what purpose visualizations are encountered. Our paper aims to extend the horizons of visualization research, in its focus on factors that affect engagement and how these suggest new definitions of effectiveness. Contents Introduction Research into engagements with visualizations Methodology Factors which affect engagements with visualizations Implications of findings for definitions of effectiveness Conclusion IntroductionAs data become increasingly ubiquitous (Kitchin, 2014;Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier, 2013), so do data visualizations -that is, the visual representation of data and datasets which communicates precise information and values. Indeed, the main way that 'ordinary,' non-experts access newly ubiquitous data is through visualizations, as Gitelman and Jackson note when they claim that data are 'mobilized graphically' [1]. It is important, therefore, to consider data visualizations as objects for critical scrutiny, not just as mechanisms to communicate data [2]. We do this in this paper by focusing on the question of how people engage with data visualizations. By 'engage', we refer to the processes of looking, reading, interpreting and thinking that take place when people cast their eyes on data visualisations and try to make sense of them. We propose that research about visualization engagement can learn from some of the approaches that are widely used in media and communication studies, especially in relation to audience research and their attention to factors (such as class, gender, race, age, location, political outlook, and education of audience members) which affect engagement with media and communications artefacts. Importantly, these factors extend beyond textual and technical matters. In data and information visualisation research, studies exploring the effectiveness of visualizations tend to define effectiveness quite narrowly, if at all, measuring it, for example, through accuracy, consistency or speed of comprehension. On the whole, such studies provide little information about who users are and how this might affect their engagement with visualizations. Also, they almost never consider the f...

Recent migration 'crises' raise important geopolitical questions. Who is 'the migrant' that contemporary politics are fixated on? How are answers to 'who counts as a migrant' changing? Who gets to do that counting, and under what circumstances? This forum responds to, as well as questions, the current saliency of migration by examining how categories of migration hold geopolitical significance-not only in how they are constructed and by whom, but also in how they are challenged and subverted. Furthermore, by examining how the very concepts of 'migrant' and 'refugee' are used in different contexts, and for a variety of purposes, it opens up critical questions about mobility, citizenship and the nation state. Collectively, these contributions aim to demonstrate how problematising migration and its categorisation can be a tool of enquiry into other phenomena and processes.

Researchers increasingly use visualisation to make sense of their data and communicate findings more widely. But these are not necessarily straightforward processes. Theories of knowledge brokerage show how sociopolitical contexts and intermediary organisations that translate research for public audiences shape how users engage with evidence. Applying these ideas to data visualisation, I argue that several kinds of brokers (such as data collectors, designers and intermediaries) link researchers and audiences, contributing to the ways that people engage with visualisations. To do this, I draw on qualitative focus groups that elicited non-academic viewers’ reactions to visualisations of data about UK migration. The results reveal two important features of engagement: perceptions of brokers’ credibility and feelings of surprise arising from visualisations’ content and design. I conclude by arguing that researchers, knowledge brokers and the public produce – as well as operate within – a complex visualisation space characterised by mutual, bi-directional connections.

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